Rachel Harrison: If I Did It - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3905770563 ISBN 13: 9783905770568

Publisher: JRP|Editions, 2008

Synopsis

Gracing the cover jacket of Rachel Harrison's highly anticipated second monograph is an informal monument to the man who holds the Americas' namesake. The only hint to this memorial for the 15th century Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, is an apple resting on an outcropping of neon-green cement; of course the fact that the apple is not only artificial but has a bite taken out of it suggests otherwise to the discovery of these "Edenic" continents. This slight yet important fact raises the basic conceit of if i did it: the active disavowal of art's political function as a museological testament to the "progress" of social history. By tossing off this monumental propensity, Harrison builds "antimonuments;" not so much sculptures but lumpen aggregates of pop psychology. In addition to Vespucci, throughout the book, one finds that celebrities Johnny Depp and Tiger Woods are included in a pantheon with John Locke and 18th century Corsican revolutionary Pasquale Paoli, meanwhile Al Gore checks the temperature, Claude Levi-Strauss checks the door with a taxidermied hen and rooster and a bi-curious Alexander the Great is the master of ceremonies. The title, taken from O.J. Simpson's infamous "hypothetical" account of his murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Donald Goldman, groups this role call of high- and low- brow idols into a nonhierarchical tableau where cultural and political value are allotted only where one sees fit.

About this title

Product Description

Good condition. Light traces of dust on the cover and light yellowing of the pages.

Synopsis

In her sculptures, which often incorporate photographic elements and objects, Rachel Harrison thematizes the complexity of art in a humorous manner, playing with the observer's appetite for decoding meanings. If she makes connections with the current discourses on sculpture and installation, her works remain difficult to characterize. Harrison's unfailingly virtuoso sculptures are often constructed in colourfully painted organic-amorphous forms, serving as mounts for readymades - whether lifestyle magazines, Calvin Klein underwear packaging, or found photographs - appearing both finished and unfinished, thus extremely fragile and ephemeral. The unexpected mix of materials links kitsch and formalism with a cynical wink of the eye. This title was published with the Migros Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and Kunsthalle Nurnberg.

Edition details

• Publisher: JRP|Editions
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3905770563
• ISBN 13: 9783905770568
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144
• Editor: Munder Heike, Seifermann Ellen