Comments?:

This Part Has Been Covered/Who Turned the Light Off?/Mounting Instructions/Expected Increase in Value/ Left Hand Work/Contemplate Souvenirs 1&2 (New Art Will Be Old/Old Art Was New)/ Half Price

2007-8

The works in the series Comments? are constituted by different playful remarks on certain formal conditions of the artworks:

A canvas has been covered by paint and a text reads This Part Has Been Covered (oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cm). The comment is a self referential description but also alludes to the art’s quest for breaking new grounds, in the sense: this part has been taken care of.

On a black square canvas the text Who turned the light off? (oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm) is placed within a speech bubble. Being the final possibility of media specific modern painting, the black square served as a symbol of the end of art, which should have resulted in the unthinkable situation of abandoning art production all together, leaving it in the dark.

The painting Mounting Instructions (oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cm) consists solely of visual directions for placing the piece according to floor, ceiling and walls.

In Expected Increase in Value (oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm) we are presented with a graph drawing the difference between the expected and the likely outcome of an investment in that specific artwork.

In Left Hand Work (oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm) that which is contained by an outline trace of a hand has been left unpainted. ‘Left hand work’ means sloppiness but in this case ‘left’ might indicate that something has been left out. One hand is rendered visible by the action of the other which remains invisible.

In the works Contemplate Souvenirs 1&2 (mixed media on mdf, 2 á 50 x 30 cm) we are reminded of new art becoming old and old art once having been new.

A small stretched canvas has been cut in half, and one of the parts is here on sale for Half Price (oil on canvas, 10 x 20 cm).

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