Small Talks #22: Claire Fontaine June 2, 2009

Small Talks #22
Claire Fontaine
June 2 to July 2, 2009
Claire Fontaine will discuss her solo Passengers project
Date: Tuesday, June 2
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Upper Wattis gallery

Claire Fontaine

French artist Claire Fontaine’s practice responds to a feeling of political impotency in contemporary culture and is motivated by the history of radical protest, particularly the Paris student uprisings of May 1968. However Fontaine’s work does not only directly relate to the politics of the late 1960s, she also consciously references artwork from the same period. Situating her practice in this way functions less as nostalgia for a specific historical moment, and more as a reminder of a time when art carried an urgent political message. Equivalent VIII (2007) is composed of bricks wrapped in book covers from texts of radical literature. Referencing the bricks thrown by the 1968 Paris protesters, these texts are symbolically and literally, turned into a device of dissent. An homage to Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII (1966), this work also merges political activism with a formal minimalist statement. Fontaine is similarly influenced by the social anarchist idea that ownership is theft. Passe-partout (Frankfurt)(2008) is a set of hacksaw blades, paper clips, and other necessary tools for opening locked doors while the video Instructions for the Sharing of Private Property (2006) demonstrates how to pick a lock. Produced in several different languages Foreigner’s Everywhere (Arabic) (2005) is from a series of neon signs making the statement of its title. With its reference to issues of immigration and the anxiety surrounding foreign terrorist threats, the sign articulates a growing suspicion towards the unfamiliar.

Official Website: http://wattis.org/