Pierre Bismuth
Antisocial
2008
160 x 120 centimeters
Unique
For his collaboration with Pierre Bismuth, Gardar Eide Einarsson produced a diptych of two identical paintings of geometrical figures based on criminal tattoos; one of them was then perforated by Bismuth, in a gesture very typical of him; the holes cut through the figures reveal the canvas' underlying wooden support.
Pierre Bismuth
Collaborateurs # 1
2008
20.5 x 22.5 centimeters
Unique
For this collaboration between Bismuth and Cyprien Gaillard, the latter established the rule of the game, by giving Bismuth a series of works in which he should intervene. The works are four old black and white postcards that have been, in a manner typical of Gaillard's corrective approach of landscape, partially obscured by ripped pieces of white paper, which gives them a conceptual link with Bismuth's Collages for Men. In an openly provocative manner, Bismuth has signed his name on the white spaces — a game of appropriation and a play on the function of proper names equally emblematic of Bismuth's practice.
Pierre Bismuth
Collaborateurs # 2
2008
20.5 x 22.5 centimeters
Unique
For this collaboration between Bismuth and Cyprien Gaillard, the latter established the rule of the game, by giving Bismuth a series of works in which he should intervene. The works are four old black and white postcards that have been, in a manner typical of Gaillard's corrective approach of landscape, partially obscured by ripped pieces of white paper, which gives them a conceptual link with Bismuth's Collages for Men. In an openly provocative manner, Bismuth has signed his name on the white spaces — a game of appropriation and a play on the function of proper names equally emblematic of Bismuth's practice.
Pierre Bismuth
Collaborateurs # 3
2008
20.5 x 22.5 centimeters
Unique
For this collaboration between Bismuth and Cyprien Gaillard, the latter established the rule of the game, by giving Bismuth a series of works in which he should intervene. The works are four old black and white postcards that have been, in a manner typical of Gaillard's corrective approach of landscape, partially obscured by ripped pieces of white paper, which gives them a conceptual link with Bismuth's Collages for Men. In an openly provocative manner, Bismuth has signed his name on the white spaces — a game of appropriation and a play on the function of proper names equally emblematic of Bismuth's practice.
Pierre Bismuth
Collaborateurs # 4
2008
20.5 x 22.5 centimeters
Unique
For this collaboration between Bismuth and Cyprien Gaillard, the latter established the rule of the game, by giving Bismuth a series of works in which he should intervene. The works are four old black and white postcards that have been, in a manner typical of Gaillard's corrective approach of landscape, partially obscured by ripped pieces of white paper, which gives them a conceptual link with Bismuth's Collages for Men. In an openly provocative manner, Bismuth has signed his name on the white spaces — a game of appropriation and a play on the function of proper names equally emblematic of Bismuth's practice.
Pierre Bismuth
Exhibitions
2008
Bismuth and Claire Fontaine's joint venture 'Exhibitions' consists of a series of videos in which curators mime an artwork of their choice. The aim of the project is to render a certain form of protagonist presence to the body of the curator. By using the physical potential of communication to describe a plastic form, language becomes secondary and another type of wordless comprehension is instituted and shared with the spectator.
Pierre Bismuth
Famous
2008
'Famous', Bismuth's collaboration with writer and philosopher Aaron Schuster, starts from Andy Warhol's notorious phrase, 'In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes'. Already in Warhol's time the line was an instant cliché, too true to be true, and so the artist subjected it to a number of permutations: 'In the future fifteen people will be famous' or 'In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous.' SCHUSTER has created a new variation, transforming the phrase into a tautology about time and a comment on the accelerated pace of contemporary history: 'In fifteen minutes everyone will be in the future.' Bismuth's animated setting gives the static statement a sense of duration implied in the title, and provides a minimal video version of Warhol's aesthetic. The video's shifting color scheme translates Warhol's spatial seriality put back into the medium of time – the time spent watching which brings the spectator closer to the future.
Pierre Bismuth
Occupancy by More than 6'682'685'387 Persons is Dangerous and Unlawful
2008
30.1 x 59.9 centimeters
Unique
This piece by Pierre Bismuth parodies occupancy signs in public places in the US under an ironically Malthusian phrase. It was displayed as an introduction for an eponymous exhibition curated by Pieree Bismuth at Cosmic Gallery in 2008, for which he invited ten artists and writers to each collaborate on an artwork around a theme that is central in his practice, the notion of 'sabotage'.
Pierre Bismuth
One Spray Can Not For Public Use
2008
Unique
'One Spray Can Not For Public Use', with Matias Faldbakken, is a self-defeating piece of writing, where the act of inscription entails its own effacement. A text is written with a spray paint can, with the proviso that the can be used until it is empty, thus obliterating the original phrase in an illegible blob of pigment. Bismuth chose the phrase 'Not For Public Use' as an ironic comment on Faldbakken's form, which is both eminently public (visible) and indecipherable (obscured).
Pierre Bismuth
Shallow
2008
aerosol on neon
Unique
In 'Shallow', Bismuth's work on the drifting of meaning in language, as expressed in his Synonym series, crosses Stefan BRÜGGEMANN's conceptual nihilism. The word 'SHALLOW' is superimposed over neon tubing which reads 'NO CONTENT'. The synonyms, however, are opposed by their formal presentation, the pristine neon piece being ‘vandalized' by a vulgar graffiti letters.
Pierre Bismuth
This Painting Should Ideally Be Hung To The Left Of A Jonathan Monk
2008
acrylic on canvas
100 x 150 centimeters
Unique
Jonathan MONK and BISMUTH, who have collaborated on several occasions, produced a play of mirror reflections: a pair of mutually referring paintings, almost identical, reading 'This painting should ideally be hung to the right of a Pierre BISMUTH' and 'This painting should ideally be hung to the left of a Jonathan MONK'. Having been painted by a third person, the literal instructions of the works are short-circuited, neither painting being attached to the artist via a physical act. What remains is a logical paradox, in which artistic activity is transformed — along the lines of the conceptual tradition from DUCHAMP to KOSUTH – into a game of pointing. The rule of this meta-artistic work is that it is always linked to another artwork, thus subverting the ideal of artistic autonomy: dependency is made a necessity.
Pierre Bismuth
This Painting Should Ideally Be Hung To The Right Of A Pierre Bismuth
2008
acrylic on canvas
100 x 150 centimeters
Unique
Jonathan MONK and BISMUTH, who have collaborated on several occasions, produced a play of mirror reflections: a pair of mutually referring paintings, almost identical, reading 'This painting should ideally be hung to the right of a Pierre BISMUTH' and 'This painting should ideally be hung to the left of a Jonathan MONK'. Having been painted by a third person, the literal instructions of the works are short-circuited, neither painting being attached to the artist via a physical act. What remains is a logical paradox, in which artistic activity is transformed — along the lines of the conceptual tradition from DUCHAMP to KOSUTH – into a game of pointing. The rule of this meta-artistic work is that it is always linked to another artwork, thus subverting the ideal of artistic autonomy: dependency is made a necessity.
Pierre Bismuth
Two Letters
2008
112 x 40 centimeters
Unique
In 'Two Letters', an 'N' and an 'O' in neon tubing have been arranged in such a way that they may be read as either 'NO' or 'ON'. In this collaboration between the two artists, Bismuth's work on the drifting of meaning in language, as expressed in his Synonym series, crosses Stefan Brüggemann's conceptual nihilism.
Pierre Bismuth
Untitled
2008
In 'Untitled', Pierre Bismuth's strategy of short-circuiting cultural products and Cory Arcangel's interest in low-end technology come together. The two wryly sabotage Guy Debord's now classic indictment of late capitalism, the film La société du spectacle, by simulating a constant weakness of the video projector, the instruction 'Change Bulb' appearing over the images througout the film.
Pierre Bismuth
Untitled (Lewitt & Mc Carthy)
2008
150 x 144 centimeters
Unique
BISMUTH's collaboration with Thomas LÉLU (Untitled) is a work composed of the superimposition of two images of well-known artworks. This chaotic 'doubled' vision of art mirrors the disorientation of spectators in an accelerated world where there is no longer any stable criteria of evaluation. At the same time, the crossing of two familiar iconographies sabotages their intended effects and produces accidental, unexpected resonances.
Pierre Bismuth
Untitled (Newton & Polke)
2008
180 x 127 centimeters
Unique
BISMUTH's collaboration with Thomas LÉLU (Untitled) is a work composed of the superimposition of two images of well-known artworks. This chaotic 'doubled' vision of art mirrors the disorientation of spectators in an accelerated world where there is no longer any stable criteria of evaluation. At the same time, the crossing of two familiar iconographies sabotages their intended effects and produces accidental, unexpected resonances.
