Pig Sty/Toxic Pie
Caraline Douglas
Although pigs are often touted to be resiliently intelligent animals, their feeding habits and pens warrant the metaphor we use when describing a particularly messy space; and like these citizens of the barren gnawed-away feeding compounds, the intelligence we as humans are dependent upon is becoming increasingly ignored in favour of a more tantalizing outcome. Like a warm pie the urge to commodify can be inviting, and often instantly gratifying. Heat rises, and as we swoop in for the first bite the aroma of something pungent, something dirty, hits the nose. That near stench is the toxic pie’s dearth of quality and the reality of excess that we have come to accept.
In a response to the junk culture that the drive towards commodification has birthed we see the work of four arguably different artists come together in a cohesive collaboration that is Pig Sty/Toxic Pie. Working in varied media each artist, in his own unique voice, utilizes a fairly overt critique of the process and consequences of commodification to put forward a rich tapestry of ideas. Although seemingly different, the threads weaving together these works of art are strategically exposed.
Through the global westernization of society we have become a part of what Guy Debord predicted back when conceptual art was booming and the counter-cultural revolution was at a high. Living within our society of the spectacle we have become beholden to our commodities through repeated exposure and dependency.
Here we have the principle of commodity fetishism, the domination of society by things whose qualities are ‘at the same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses.’ This principle is absolutely fulfilled in the spectacle where the perceptible world is replaced by a set of images that are superior to that world yet at the same time impose themselves as imminently as possible. [1]
Yet, through Pig Sty/Toxic Pie these artists explore a gleeful and simultaneously solemn shirking of the supposed responsibilities we hold to ‘things.’ Although on the surface the work that we view in this exhibition may seem like four very different practices, it is through a syzygy of ideas, motivations and inspirations that the working practices of Matt Akehurst, ZhongHao Chen, Oscar Enberg and Sebastian Warne converge. Having collaborated before – participating in an array of interventions as a part of Akehurst’s successful GalleryGallery (2010)[2] – it is through their own respective working processes that the works of Pig Sty/Toxic Pie come together.
Through a varied set of practices the artists question and challenge our set notions of the process of traditional art making and art consumption. Akehurst’s sculptural Bob Blue Blob II (2010) barely concedes defeat as a tangible art object in the round. Just as the work rejects its own ‘place’ Akehurst, as an artist, openly challenges the traditional systems in which art is made, viewed and judged. As a theoretical deconstruction of the current systems of ‘the art world’ Bob Blue Blob II appears to physically resist commodification through its obvious discomfort on top of a traditional white plinth. Warne’s Cost You a Roman Wilderness of Pain (2010) similarly envisions an alternative to the Capitalist Dream. Through a layered presentation of loss the work mournfully examines a metaphorical place wedged in between two leaders in world domination. An amalgamation of materials, the work challenges two leading World Superpowers though an idealized and fetishized image of the landscape. Bound together with viscera-like ooze the obscured floating image of a scientific manufacturing company logo exposes the hubris of man in an exploration of the ultimate process of giving life through production.
Just as Warne uses Cost you to examine and challenge the governing and managing forces behind the drive towards repeated consumption ZhongHao, through his paintings AM business (2010) and Ersatz cookie (2010), examines the act of consumption and explores the process of painting to break apart established notions regarding method and reference. At the core of his working process is the manipulation of the material, yet with a skillful assessment of contemporary culture, ZhongHao uses his adept manipulation to mirror the current driving forces that he views around him. Whilst ZhongHao examines the tension between art making as a process and a product Enberg’s work Titled (Miley Box Set) (2010) explores the process of production through a more overtly direct quotation and rendering of the plasticization of imagery. Appropriating a found image of a prolifically promoted pop icon, the works are re-imagined through the addition of painted gestural embellishments and affixed with found objects as the works spew margarine. By altering a found image of a pre-packed, plastic-wrapped and manufactured personality, Enberg strikes consciousness into action and forces an element of humanity to supplant the one-dimensional flatness of an over-exposed pop icon.
Between Enberg’s appropriation of a recognisable popular culture figure, that arguably epitomizes commodity culture, and ZhongHao’s painterly visceral works we see a common binding notion of challenge and confrontation. Warne and Akehurst similarly present works in this Pig Sty/Toxic Pie that absorb and reflect the artists’ views and comments on the inverted process by which production and consumption breed a naïve acceptance of the status quo. Challenging the long comfortable notion that ‘ignorance is bliss’ through these projects Pig Sty/Toxic Pie hopes to shake some consciousness over the masses.
Utilizing a metaphorical and physical examination of dimensionality these artists have brought depth to and responded to the flatness that pervades the current cultural movements. The current system of values that have been put in place through the process of forcing humanity to become dependent on our commodities has arguably contributed to a relaxed interchange between our commodities and what we accept as culture. This repeated exposure to the commodifiable object has anesthetized our senses and rendered consumers complacent and immune to the taste of toxicity. Through an adept critique of the current established norms Akehurst, Enberg, Warne and ZhongHao bring an inter-disciplinary selection of works to Pig Sty/Toxic Pie that challenge the viewer to examine what makes our mouths water.
[1] Debord, Guy, Nicholson-Smith, Donald, trans., The Society of the Spectacle, (New York: Zone Books) 26. Debord first published The Society of the Spectacle in 1967, and one could argue that the predictions outlined in Debord’s post-war theses on capitalism is ever-more relevant.
[2] GalleryGallery is a concept conceived by Matt Akehurst. The recently completed project saw ‘[a] typical institutionalized white cube’ transported around the city of Christchurch. Artists and musicians held ‘openings’, gigs and performances in GalleryGallery in a drive to breakdown the barriers between the traditional concept of the art object and white-walled gallery space. < http://gallerygallery1.blogspot.com/>
Although pigs are often touted to be resiliently intelligent animals, their feeding habits and pens warrant the metaphor we use when describing a particularly messy space; and like these citizens of the barren gnawed-away feeding compounds, the intelligence we as humans are dependent upon is becoming increasingly ignored in favour of a more tantalizing outcome. Like a warm pie the urge to commodify can be inviting, and often instantly gratifying. Heat rises, and as we swoop in for the first bite the aroma of something pungent, something dirty, hits the nose. That near stench is the toxic pie’s dearth of quality and the reality of excess that we have come to accept.
In a response to the junk culture that the drive towards commodification has birthed we see the work of four arguably different artists come together in a cohesive collaboration that is Pig Sty/Toxic Pie. Working in varied media each artist, in his own unique voice, utilizes a fairly overt critique of the process and consequences of commodification to put forward a rich tapestry of ideas. Although seemingly different, the threads weaving together these works of art are strategically exposed.
Through the global westernization of society we have become a part of what Guy Debord predicted back when conceptual art was booming and the counter-cultural revolution was at a high. Living within our society of the spectacle we have become beholden to our commodities through repeated exposure and dependency.
Here we have the principle of commodity fetishism, the domination of society by things whose qualities are ‘at the same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses.’ This principle is absolutely fulfilled in the spectacle where the perceptible world is replaced by a set of images that are superior to that world yet at the same time impose themselves as imminently as possible. [1]
Yet, through Pig Sty/Toxic Pie these artists explore a gleeful and simultaneously solemn shirking of the supposed responsibilities we hold to ‘things.’ Although on the surface the work that we view in this exhibition may seem like four very different practices, it is through a syzygy of ideas, motivations and inspirations that the working practices of Matt Akehurst, ZhongHao Chen, Oscar Enberg and Sebastian Warne converge. Having collaborated before – participating in an array of interventions as a part of Akehurst’s successful GalleryGallery (2010)[2] – it is through their own respective working processes that the works of Pig Sty/Toxic Pie come together.
Through a varied set of practices the artists question and challenge our set notions of the process of traditional art making and art consumption. Akehurst’s sculptural Bob Blue Blob II (2010) barely concedes defeat as a tangible art object in the round. Just as the work rejects its own ‘place’ Akehurst, as an artist, openly challenges the traditional systems in which art is made, viewed and judged. As a theoretical deconstruction of the current systems of ‘the art world’ Bob Blue Blob II appears to physically resist commodification through its obvious discomfort on top of a traditional white plinth. Warne’s Cost You a Roman Wilderness of Pain (2010) similarly envisions an alternative to the Capitalist Dream. Through a layered presentation of loss the work mournfully examines a metaphorical place wedged in between two leaders in world domination. An amalgamation of materials, the work challenges two leading World Superpowers though an idealized and fetishized image of the landscape. Bound together with viscera-like ooze the obscured floating image of a scientific manufacturing company logo exposes the hubris of man in an exploration of the ultimate process of giving life through production.
Just as Warne uses Cost you to examine and challenge the governing and managing forces behind the drive towards repeated consumption ZhongHao, through his paintings AM business (2010) and Ersatz cookie (2010), examines the act of consumption and explores the process of painting to break apart established notions regarding method and reference. At the core of his working process is the manipulation of the material, yet with a skillful assessment of contemporary culture, ZhongHao uses his adept manipulation to mirror the current driving forces that he views around him. Whilst ZhongHao examines the tension between art making as a process and a product Enberg’s work Titled (Miley Box Set) (2010) explores the process of production through a more overtly direct quotation and rendering of the plasticization of imagery. Appropriating a found image of a prolifically promoted pop icon, the works are re-imagined through the addition of painted gestural embellishments and affixed with found objects as the works spew margarine. By altering a found image of a pre-packed, plastic-wrapped and manufactured personality, Enberg strikes consciousness into action and forces an element of humanity to supplant the one-dimensional flatness of an over-exposed pop icon.
Between Enberg’s appropriation of a recognisable popular culture figure, that arguably epitomizes commodity culture, and ZhongHao’s painterly visceral works we see a common binding notion of challenge and confrontation. Warne and Akehurst similarly present works in this Pig Sty/Toxic Pie that absorb and reflect the artists’ views and comments on the inverted process by which production and consumption breed a naïve acceptance of the status quo. Challenging the long comfortable notion that ‘ignorance is bliss’ through these projects Pig Sty/Toxic Pie hopes to shake some consciousness over the masses.
Utilizing a metaphorical and physical examination of dimensionality these artists have brought depth to and responded to the flatness that pervades the current cultural movements. The current system of values that have been put in place through the process of forcing humanity to become dependent on our commodities has arguably contributed to a relaxed interchange between our commodities and what we accept as culture. This repeated exposure to the commodifiable object has anesthetized our senses and rendered consumers complacent and immune to the taste of toxicity. Through an adept critique of the current established norms Akehurst, Enberg, Warne and ZhongHao bring an inter-disciplinary selection of works to Pig Sty/Toxic Pie that challenge the viewer to examine what makes our mouths water.
[1] Debord, Guy, Nicholson-Smith, Donald, trans., The Society of the Spectacle, (New York: Zone Books) 26. Debord first published The Society of the Spectacle in 1967, and one could argue that the predictions outlined in Debord’s post-war theses on capitalism is ever-more relevant.
[2] GalleryGallery is a concept conceived by Matt Akehurst. The recently completed project saw ‘[a] typical institutionalized white cube’ transported around the city of Christchurch. Artists and musicians held ‘openings’, gigs and performances in GalleryGallery in a drive to breakdown the barriers between the traditional concept of the art object and white-walled gallery space. < http://gallerygallery1.blogspot.com/>
