As a part of the Nordic Design exhibition at Total Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul (1 - 24 mai 2009) Anna Daniell and me made 7 new works. Art Director was Amie Ann. Scroll down for more text.
Design Soup (Rirkrit you bastard!)
gas cocker with sticker, aluminium kettle, boiling water, boiled design magazines
60 x 40 x 40 cm
2009
Noodle Man
Ottogo Ramensari / noodles
56 x 16 x 14 cm
2009
Munch Scream Jigsaw
(Munks Scream Jigsaw)
Lightjet print, 100 x 100 cm?
2009
detail
Scream Still life
(Scream souvenirs bought on Ebay)
Lightjet print, 112 x 82 cm
2009
detail
National Treasure #2
souvenir towels from the National Museum of Korea
60 x 90 x 90 cm
2009
Yin-Yang Cheeseburger
Lightjet print, 110 x 80 cm?
2009
detail
National Treasure #3
Silla Golden Crown (suovenir d.i.y. kit)
2009
Catalogue text
As part of the Nordic design exhibition artists Anna Daniell and Sverre Strandberg is invited to make a contribution. Thematically their works often revolves around the economic value of things contra artistic value, or the copy and the original. Daniell/Strandberg are artists in residency at the Changdong Art Studio here in Seoul run by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea.
For this exhibition the new works of Daniell / Strandberg are seemingly inspired by their stay in Korea. The photography Yin Yang Cheeseburger plays on the Korean flag showing a partitioned Mc Donalds Cheeseburger as Yin and Yang. In the work National Treasure #2 a sculpture is created of souvenir towels bought on the National Museum of Korea.
Common for many of these works are that they are using products / commodity as building blocks. For instance in Scream we se a collection of Scream souvenirs (bought on Ebay) mediated as a still life photo. The low value of the Scream souvenirs transforms into a valuable original yet again. The question posted may be, what would Scream be without its reproductions and copies?
In the 1990s Rirkrit Tiravanija became famous for making Noodle soup in the gallery and serving it for free to everyone. As art this was fresh and radical (thought it had ties to the 1970s). Later it became very usual and coined as relational aesthetics . After cocking noodles into the new millennium Rirkrits social soup reminds of a brand in art.. Design soup is a reflection around this phenomena. Off course very afraid of the soup...