If you have old paintings, do not despair. Retain your memories but detourn them so that they correspond with your era. Why reject the old? —Asger Jorn
Work in progress, a reserach based project 2022-
What intrigues me with this project is the subject of modified, redirected art. How artists get inspired by existing art pieces, found on flea markets and in thrift stores and how they transform those found dusty treasures into something else. Something better, more personal, funnier, weirder or more interesting.
Also I’m intrigued by the fact that this specific art form has a long history, but it didn’t find a common name yet. But artists have been working with second hand art for more than a century! So why did this genre of art not get so much attention? Is it because it’s not an ‘original’ art piece? But why should a redirected, modified, piece of art be less important or interesting than a not modified, redirected, piece of art?
With Redirections/THRIFT I would like to not only high-light this particular genre of modified art, but also the ideas behind the work. Who are the artists and filmmakers that are taking part of this movement at this particular moment in time, and what are their motives? Questions that I like to investigate are: Why using flea markets and thrift stores as a point of departure? Why add new and different layers of narratives to an existing piece of art or film? Is it about recycling materials? Is it about using something that’s already there, but then transform it into something else? Is there a common denominator?
As for now, in February 2022, I’m taking laboratory approach while focusing on the research. Community art, a shared experience while doing something together, is somthing that I would like to look into a bit more.
Why now?
After the first lockdown in Amsterdam in 2020 when the shops opened up again after several months of closure, I went into a thrift store by chance. In a dusty corner (the art department) I found a painted portrait that was kind of weird, in an interesting way.
I thought I could maybe paint it over, transform it a bit, to make it even weirder. The pricetag was 7,50 euro and I bought it. As I got excited by the final result (even weirder indeed) I decided to do some research on the subject of repurposed thrift store art. And I realized that there are loads of artists and filmmakers going to flea markets and thrift stores, buying second hand art and found footage, for the pleasure of repurposing it into something else. As a matter of fact, artists have been doing this for a long time, but this genre of art just didn’t get so much exposure. And the work of repurposed thrift store art didn’t find a common name yet; it has been called Modification Paintings (by Asger Jorn) and ‘Re-Directed Art’ (by David Irvine), other people call it up-cycled art or second hand upgraded art.
Since I’m working within this genre of visual art myself, I would like to know more about this specific artform. But also I would like to know more about the people behind it.
Who are my artistic soulmates in the flea markets and thrift stores…?
How is this topic usually approached? What are the cliches? What has already been done?
Until now, almost no curator has approached this subject as far as I know. There was a show in 1959 in Paris, where Asger Jorn exhibited a group of paintings at the prominent Galerie Rive Gauche. Not only did he rework second hand paintings with his own brush, modifying their respective surfaces, but he also wrote a text describing his technique as a recovery of certain iconographic archetypes. Instead of making a mockery of these kitsch paintings, he articulated some of their inherent folk-art values. The exhibition was not well received. However, it has since become legendary. Jorn’s modification paintings have long been a neglected chapter in the Danish artist’s biography. Yet from today’s perspective these high/low art approaches are recognized by keen-eyed viewers as mirrors reflecting the historicity of modern painting. Such modifications of art are a painterly version of “détournement,” a Situationist technique, described in 1956 by Guy Debord and Gil Wolman, as the systematic revaluation of “prefabricated aesthetic products.” For Jorn, who co-founded and financially supported the Situationist International, the 1959 Galerie Rive Gauche exhibition, showcased his implementation of a fundamental aesthetic critique, in which he appropriates a relatively discredited artistic source as “his” own material, then applies his own iconography, and his language to that particular prefabricated piece of art.
Then, jump forward, there was a show in New York in 2019 called Strategic Vandalism: The Legacy of Asger Jorn’s Modification Paintings, with works by Enrico Baj, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Vidya Gastaldon, Wade Guyton/Stephen Prina, Rachel Harrison, Ray Johnson, Jacqueline de Jong, Asger Jorn, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Lee Krasner, Albert Oehlen, Francis Picabia, Stephen Prina, R.H. Quaytman, Arnulf Rainer, Julian Schnabel, Jim Shaw, Gedi Sibony, Alexis Smith, Daniel Spoerri, John Stezaker, Betty Tompkins, and David Wojnarowicz.
And that’s it as far as I know; one show in 1959 in Paris and one show in 2019 in New York.
Challenges and cliches
The cliches within this genre, is the fact that there are many white male contemporary western artists working with redirected art. And most of them tend to add either Star Wars or Walt Disney figures to their second hand paintings. And I find it so boring. I’m working from a totally different angle myself, and I would love to find and connect with artists from different cultures, both women and men, who are working with other frameworks than
Walt Disney or Star Wars. But so far I hardly found any women at all working within this genre, let alone male artists that are into something else than Star Wars or Walt Disney.
In terms of disciplines and materials there are various directions of repurposed thrift store art; obviously many painters, but there are also artists who work with second hand photographs and objects, and artists who work with second hand cross-stitching embroideries. And filmmakers who work with found footage from flea markets. Redirections/THRIFT will display and investigate a variety of repurposed thrift store art in all its dimensions, disciplines, materials and techniques.
If possible…
Design wise I’d like to temporarily transform the space (preferably a physical space, a bigger art gallery kind of space) with wallpapers with huge blow-ups of classic thrift store art, like the massproduced The Crying Boy (Giovanni Bragolin) or alpine landscapes in Technicolor. The wallpaper will work as a backdrop for the art exhibited. The exhibition will include two and three-dimensional art objects combined with screenings with found footage that has been reedited with a new narrative by filmmakers. I imagine a coffee corner, or a small cinema setting, where the visitors comfortably can sit down and watch the screenings.
Collaborations
The project of Redirections/THRIFT will include community workshops with the theme ‘Pimp your thrift store art’, combined with field trips to local flea markets and thrift stores. I would like to collaborate with the community attached to certain places and/or art academy students for a three day workshop, where we would work together on found objects of art from the flea market, resulting in a public presentation.
Public presentations & Round Table Talks – Presentations and round table talks will focus on how we can use and get inspired by pre-existing art objects.