Tag Archives: Readymades

Changing Subjects By Elmgreen & Dragset at Flag Art Foundation

Untitled
Untitled, 2011 By Elmgreen & Dragset (All Photos By Gail)

The Flag Art Foundation is currently hosting Changing Subjects, a solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed Scandinavian artists Elmgreen & Dragset. Changing Subjects, designed by the artists, presents new and existing works from the duo’s twenty-year-long collaboration that address existential issues linked to identity, sexuality, and mortality, as well as an examination of social value systems and the expectations that surround them.

Changing Subjects investigates the multiple meanings of the word “subject” as a noun. In grammatical terms, the subject can be a noun functioning as one of the main components of a clause, making it the element about which the rest of the clause is predicated. In turn, the predicate is the part of a sentence or clause that expresses what is said of the subject on its own. In the context of Changing Subjects, the subject of each work exists independently of the others, yet when viewed together, they shift positions, creating a complex interconnection between the autonomous works.

Go Go Go
Go, Go, Go!

The works in the exhibition, ranging in date of creation from 1998 to 2016, collectively guide visitors on a non-linear journey through various life stages. However, the sculptures and installations do not mark momentous occasions; on the contrary, they show introspective, unspectacular moments, by way of a figurative representation, by the use of a minimalist symbolic language, or by employing the actual materials to which they refer. Even when a lifelike human form is not shown, presence is implied through absence. The repeated use of an antiseptic material like stainless steel underscores a sense of a clinical study and evokes solitary feelings of abandonment.

More Photos After The Jump!

Continue reading Changing Subjects By Elmgreen & Dragset at Flag Art Foundation

Modern Art Monday Presents: Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? By Marcel Duchamp

Why Not Sneeze
All Photos By Gail

Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? is a 1921 Readymade sculpture by Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp considered this to be an “Assisted Readymade” because the original object, the Birdcage, was altered by the artist with the addition of the other objects. These consist of 152 white cubes (made of marble but resembling sugar cubes), a mercury thermometer, a piece of cuttlebone, and a tiny porcelain dish. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? By Marcel Duchamp

A$AP (Safety Exit) By Siu Lan Ko

A$AP Sign
A$AP (Safety Exit), 2010; LED Lightbox, Aluminum Frame, Glass Panel, LED Lights, Still Screen
Edition of Eight (Photo By Gail)

Chinese artist Siu Lan Ko makes objects, public works, performances, videos and installations. Words and slogans as readymades are at the center of her art process. Living in both China and Canada, she enjoys wordplay and actions which reflect the misunderstandings and contradictions that result from different coexisting cultures, languages and social systems, stemming from her China East versus China West cultural experiences. Her performances, installations, objects and Public Works utilized the possibilities created by the impossibility of translation, and embrace the poetic limitations of speech.