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JOE SCANLAN
Born 1967 in Circleville, Ohio (USA). Lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Mood Piece (AD I, II, III), 2006
3 photographs mounted on light boxes, each 100 x 150 cm
Courtesy of the Chez Valentin Gallery, Paris
(Produced for the exhibition)
Joe Scanlan is an artist who feels himself to be an integrated part of the capitalist society to which he belongs, and as a consequence he integrates commercial concepts lucidly and explicitly in his artistic practice and discourse. Claiming that his work is an invention that responds to his own needs, and that he wishes to both generate demand and make money, it responds to two principles - the pleasure of producing for oneself an object with which society does not supply us, and the necessity of a growth in the power of artists, which results from democratisation and the expansion of the diffusion of works of art.
Joe Scanlan created Catalyst in 1999, the photos of which displayed in this exhibition are publicity shots. “Catalyst is the name of a dada brand of cosmetic tears. Six acrylic tears – two small, two medium, two large – come in a little bag, and as this ‘sculpture’ measures only 70 x 35 x 5 mm, it could be carried in a handbag or wallet. One might wear these tears as a way of demonstrating one’s opinion of people. If you put one on in the metro for example, perhaps someone would give you their seat. Or you might wear one during the war in Iraq as a symbol of protest, or put one on when you go out at night just to amuse yourself” (Joe Scanlan, interview with François Piron). The advertisement of this ‘product’, promoted using these melancholic images, seems to imply a slogan something like “wear Catalyst whenever you want to appear to have emotions”.
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