BE THEREShitPresented by Yvon Lambert Gallery September 4, 2008- October 4, 2008Reception: September 4, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmAndres Serrano
The exhibition titled “Shit” features new large scale cibachrome photographs and will be accompanied by a full color catalogue with an essay by Hélène Cixous. The exhibition in New York will run concurrently with an exhibition of the same title at Yvon Lambert Paris. Andres Serrano (b. 1950) is considered one of the most important contemporary artists working today. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Reina Sofia, Madrid and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, to name a few. Serrano is most notorious for his seminal 1987 work Piss Christ , an image of a plastic crucifix submerged in the artist s own urine. The photograph was the subject of a heated congressional debate in which politicians and religious leaders directly threatened Serrano s artistic freedom. The scandal resulted in an anti-obscenity clause that prevented “offensive” art works from receiving public funding. In 2007 Serrano made controversial headlines again when a group of graphic photographs from his “History of Sex” series were vandalized in Sweden by members of a purported neo-Nazi group. Serrano s work focuses on universal themes such as bodily fluids, religion, sex and death. In this new series he continues his investigation of bodily functions through brightly colored photographs of excrement produced by a motley of animals. The photographs are formally constructed and demonstrate Serrano s considerable technical skill while analyzing subject matter that might make some viewers squeamish. The artist treats the feces to his familiar bright psychedelic backgrounds and titles that demonstrate his keen sense of humour. The photographs are simultaneously repellent and fascinating, allowing the viewer to inspect the manure without the deterrent of odor or other sensual aggravation. Although the theme is considered taboo, excrement has a discernable documentation in the history of art. In 1961 Piero Manzoni s unveiled his “Merda d Artista” metal cans that supposedly contained the artist s stool, priced according to weight. Karen Finley smeared herself with symbolic feces and even Andy Warhol was quoted in the National Review saying that he would like to market his own excrement as jewelry (he felt it was merely a matter of tasteful packaging). Serrano does nonetheless confront the topic more directly than most. We recoil from his larger than life images of human and animal waste (an evolutionary and biological response to the diseases that are the consequence of bad sanitation. We are programmed to know this refuse is dangerous to handle or ingest). Once the viewer recovers from the initial shock of the images, they are left to curiously study this eccentric body of work. Who could have imagined that animals produce such an array of textures, shapes and color? Serrano gives us a selection of “shits” that he dubs Cute shit, Evil shit, Hieronymous Bosch shit, Romantic shit and Deep shit, humorous and provocative titles which further illustrate Serrano s distinctive point of view.
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