ALLEGORIES
Sculpture
Mixed technique
To take the image of a toy out of its regular context and to give it an absolutely new significance in order to participate to what Victor Burgin calls «semiotic guerrilla warfare». It means to figure out a traditional meaning of an object and to shift it to a new dimension with an intention to arouse in people any reaction back because nowadays nothing may shock anyone. As an example, in any magazine of our days, next to a page relating to the misery of our World we see an ad of an «awesome and must-have» product. The artist decides to combine a toy as an image of our infantile society totally mad about the idea of eternal youth, with a machine as a symbol of the means superiority over the Nature. He chooses such form of the representation in order to express his critical point of view at our totally technological World.
Day Dream Nation (Mickey Mouse)
2008, 70x50x40cm
Mickey Mouse of a steel body holds a terrestrial globe in his hands. This allegory is a sharp criticism of globalization. In fact, the whole Earth has become a playground for a few dozens of multinational companies that took a total control over all natural resources of the planet in order to produce a «cheep» product and to sell it finally very expensive. Also, here we find an ecological context. The planet has been transforming into a feedstock, the overproduction neglects the frailty of ecosystems and annihilates localities of plant and animal species. The Earth is no longer the House for all living creatures, but a source of income for business dealers.
Another point of artist's irony is cultural standardization. I.e. a kid grown up either in Asia or Europe or Africa has been watching through his childhood the same TV-shows as other kids all around the World. The fact of the matter is that these TV programs and cartoons have been promoting the moral values based on the American way of life and standards. Thus, Mickey Mouse has become a perfect symbol of cultural standardization. The body of the cartoon hero made of many mechanic pieces represents a terrible technological development generated by globalization. The title Day Dream Nation is the same as one of the albums of Sonic Youth released in 1988.
La rivoluzione siamo noi (Teddy-bear)
2009, 70x40x30 cm
A teddy-bear of thousand glittering aluminum details plays with euro-dollar-Chinese Yuan symbols. Balancing on one paw, his body position is very ambiguous. His movements and behavior are not clear. A small gap between the money symbols and the teddy's paw is confusing. We doubt if he keeps it in his hand or tries to catch it. Some even see here a martial attitude, the toy waiving this money symbols above his head like a flag to our system. Whatever point of view we acquire, the teddy has already lost its balance and is one moment away before the fall, collapse.
The subject of artist's research here is the economic crisis of the last years and money race. Total computerization that gives access to every piece of information, adoption of new financial products and services more and more complicated have plunged our economic system into a spiral of an excess profit. Behind the artificial high growth rate and benefit we can't appraise any more the real financial situation in the World. This euphoria of endless cash flow has blinded the business system that has been losing its primary function for a long time now.
Unfortunately, such tendency is common not only for big companies with enormous assets, but also for small enterprises with debts all fooled by the media and credit trades whose main politics is to push everyone to consume and to buy more and more and more.
The sculpture has the same title as a work of an Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan We are the Revolution that is an irony of Joseph Beuys anti-capitalist attitude. Here, the revolution is euro-dollar-Chinese Yuan.
Untitled (Rabbit)
2009, 60x50x30 cm
Of the subject "Allah has no face," so we see that this work is a reference to the scandal about caricatures of Mahomet that took place a few years ago in Denmark. At the same time, it is a conscious will to play with this strict taboo to depict Allah or his Prophet.
To illustrate this scandalous fatwa that condemns to death everyone who breaks it, the artist refers to the story of Salman Rushdie and his book The Satanic Verses. After publishing the book, the author had been seriously threatened; he was obliged to defend his life and his rights. It all might seem shocking and barbaric, especially if we remember that the doctrine of the Prophet was based on the principle of love, tolerance and open-mindedness. Moreover, the provocation is hidden right here; we notice that our rabbit has no face, thus we ask ourselves so could Allah be the rabbit?
Well, we may not ignore the global return to religious moral codes in a few last years. In particular, in the Parisian suburbs that have turned into Islamic and in the USA blown with the Community of Christ and the ideas of the creationism. Thus, religion becomes a taboo and religious fanatics don't accept any discussion over the subject.
We could go even further in our research. The flag, stuck out of the golden gun is a symbol of the West's military power and economical influence spread over the Middle East. Using democracy and freedom as a plausible pretext they have got access to the territories in order to establish a control over oil.The artist chooses to gamble on this global economic situation and on this war that Islamic fanatics declared to the rest of the World. Absolutely, it is a very delicate point of discussion, but what the artist him-self says: "I love ambiguity".
The artist names this work Untitled. First of all, he doesn't want to confuse a spectator by a taboo title. He explains it; a spectator sees the sculpture without knowing the title, he loves it, he's attracted by its aesthetic form. Or a spectator takes his time to look more carefully at the rabbit in order to discern the artist's idea, he pays attentions to the details (the flag) and so on his attitude towards the sculpture changes. The artist deliberately adds the political and sulfurous connotation to his work, all shiny and beautiful.
By Alexandre Durand
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