Sylvie Fleury
dal 21/9/2004 al 6/11/2004
Segnalato da
21/9/2004
Sylvie Fleury
the gallery sketch, London
When the artist directs her artistic attention to the circulation of goods in the venous system of avant-garde women s fashions, we are confronted with an agenda as guileful as it is revealing. With disarming sophistication she stages the meeting and mixing of art and marketing technologies in the museum or gallery space.
Film and video retrospective
When Sylvie Fleury directs her artistic attention to the circulation of goods in the venous system of avant-garde women s fashions, we are confronted with an agenda as guileful as it is revealing. With disarming sophistication she stages the meeting and mixing of art and marketing technologies in the museum or gallery space&. Fleury s strategies address subcultures that are ordinarily foreign to art" (Bice Curiger, Cosmetics and Cars, Parkett, issue 58, 2000). Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury has become a leading figure in contemporary art through her varied investigations into the simultaneously glamorous and gaudy worlds of fashion, shopping, sixties girl groups, muscle cars, and esotericism; playfully questioning the relationships between art and consumerism, the masculine and feminine, and class versus bad taste. In a variety of media, Fleury gleefully incorporates visual quotations from art history into her ready-mades, sculptures, photographs, and installations with obvious references to the work of major (and significantly) male Modern art stars such as Piet Mondrian, Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, and Jeff Koons. Fleury makes fashion and leisure interests more relevant, working with materials like high-heeled shoes and fake fur; selecting paint colours based on the season s most fashionable; emphasising the superficiality of her chosen subjects; and relishing in the glossy surfaces of cars, lipsticks, and magazines. It is all done with a wry sense of humour, and Fleury s sincerity and obsession are evident. Just recontextualising something that s very superficial will give it a new depth. And sometimes, just being a woman and showing something - like a pair of shoes, a car, or a Carl Andre gives it another dimension (Sylvie Fleury in an interview with Peter Halley, Index Magazine, 2002). There is a lack of cynicism in her pieces, and for all the garishness in their appearance, there is a subtlety in the thinking behind them.
sketch is pleased to present a retrospective of Sylvie Fleury s film and video work with:
Twinkle 1992, 30
Current Issues 1994, 32
Car Wash 1995, 52
Current Issues July/August 95 1995, 42
Beauty Case 1995, 30
Walk on Carl Andre 1997, 40
Walk in the Museum 1997, 24
Gucci Satellite 1997, 20
Current Issues Sept/Oct 97 1997, 30
Between My Legs 1998, 20
Daikoku 1998, 30
Viva Las Vegas 2001, 35
Rotorua Perpetual Glow Machine 2001, 30
Zen & Speed 2001, 30
Sylvie Fleury was born in 1961. She lives and works in Geneva. Her work has been featured extensively at major museums and art centres including: Fondation Lambert, Avignon (2003); Museum für Neue Kunst, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2001); ICA, Boston (Customizing, 2000); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Monaco (Air!Air!, 2000); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (What If?, 2000); Tate Gallery, Liverpool (Heaven, 1999); 24th International Biennial, São Paulo (1998); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (1998); South London Gallery (Some Kind of Heaven, 1997); Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (1996); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (Fémininmasculin, le sexe de l art, 1995); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (1994); 45th Venice Biennale (1993); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (Posthuman, 1992); and Villa Arson, Nice (No Man s Time, 1991). She has also exhibited in numerous private galleries around the world. This exhibition has been curated by Alexandre Pollazzon.
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the gallery sketch
9 Conduit Street
London