Exhibition
Ceal Floyer
„I want the manifestation of my ideas to be life-sized, not only regarding their scale, but also in terms of their relevance to their situation or medium. Then they’re more like the ideas behind something.
Art is just a manifestation, a Trojan Horse, for ideas”. This is a quote by Ceal Floyer (born in 1968 in Karachi/Pakistan, living in Berlin and London) taken from a Lisson Gallery press release. In her oeuvre the artist approaches the specific meaning of objects and their designations. Her works exude Beckett-styled humor, involving plenty of ambiguity. “Solo”, an installation consisting of a microphone stand and a hairbrush, highlights the loneliness accompanying performative or artistic activities. Words and/or the alleged melody remain unheard, and just like in Marcel Duchamp’s “Chocolate Grinder” where the bachelor eventually grinds the chocolate himself, the solo appearance staged by Floyer remains imaginary. There is also “Trash”, a projection of the garbage can we all know from our computers’ user interfaces, in which the symbol that stands for whatever needs to be disposed of becomes the work itself. Representing all discarded ideas and all writing not shared with anybody else, “Trash” is elevated to the rank of an icon that epitomizes whatever has allegedly failed. Failure, of course, is considered an integral part of the process of creation.
