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Edward
Tyler
Nahem
Fine
Art,
New
York,
will
debut
a
powerful
new
series
by
contemporary
artist
Andres
Serrano
at
The
Armory
Show,
March
8-‐11,
2012.
Entitled
Anarchy,
this
series
is
comprised
of
photographs
that
are
challenging,
gripping
and,
true
to
the
artist,
somewhat
controversial.
As
the
artist
himself
states,
"Anarchy
subverts
the
innocence
of
childhood
by
using
the
archetypes
of
early
youth
to
explore
a
sinister
world
of
make
believe.
It
is
the
invented
universe
of
the
young
mind
and
the
old
mind
as
it
straddles
the
line
between
the
conscious
and
the
unconscious,
the
playful
and
the
critical,
the
rational
and
the
unconscionable.”
Throughout
Serrano’s
30-‐year
career
and
numerous
celebrated
series
that
include
Immersions,
Bodily
Fluids,
Nomads,
The
Klan,
America,
and
The
Morgue,
Serrano
has
created
a
distinct
visual
language
to
propose
questions
about
consumerism,
religion,
society,
sex
and
death.
Conceived
in
2011
for
Edward
Tyler
Nahem
Fine
Art,
Anarchy
relates
to
Serrano’s
well-‐documented
body
of
work
in
its
formal
aspects:
film
is
shot
in
a
straightforward
photographic
technique,
without
the
use
of
digital
manipulation,
achieving
images
that
are
equally
iconic
and
timely,
beautiful
and
mortifying.
In
Anarchy,
Serrano
departs
from
photographing
people
directly,
instead
employing
toys
and
figurines,
selectively
lighted
and
in
silhouette,
to
explore
his
chosen
subjects.
Germano
Celant
writes
about
Serrano’s
2011
photographs
in
silhouette,
Holy
Works,
from
which
this
series
follows,
in
the
forthcoming
monograph
of
the
same
title
(Damiani
Editore,
Feb.
2012).
Referring
to
these
works
as
“Serrano’s
sublime
shadows”,
Celant
remarks
that
“…
he
wants
to
deal
with
the
images
that
have
structured
our
thought,
be
it
worldly
or
transcendental:
those
‘icons’
on
which
have
been
molded
the
idols,
in
negative
or
in
positive,
of
the
heuristic
and
human
values
of
existence.”
Works
in
the
new
Anarchy
series
include
American
Monument,
Celebrity,
Level
of
Disobedience,
Made
in
China,
Oedipus,
Rage,
The
Hanging,
The
Prisoner,
and
Traitor.
These
compelling
and
provocative
images
range
from
a
paparazzi-‐surrounded
Jesus
in
Celebrity
to
the
perplexing
figure
of
a
gesticulating
soldier
in
Traitor
(is
he
a
“traitor”
or
is
he
exposing
one?),
from
the
dangling
silhouette
of
a
uniformed
body
in
The
Hanging,
to
a
girl
brandishing
a
pistol,
execution-‐style,
in
Level
of
Disobedience.
The
subjects,
staged
or
suspended
in
the
studio
with
Plexiglas
and
colored
backgrounds,
are
eerily
seductive,
their
lack
of
overt
detail
facilitating
an
appreciation
based
on
each
viewer’s
specific
vantage
point.
As
is
Serrano’s
method,
references
and
titles
are
often
attributable
to
the
photographed
objects
themselves.
Made
in
China
depicts
a
silhouetted
figure
with
the
manufacturing
stamp
"Made
in
China"
and
Freud
and
the
Big
Vagina
depicts
a
figure
labeled
"Sigmund
Freud."
Dissonance
and
disruption
are
caused
when
the
viewer
realizes
that
Made
in
China
depicts
the
Statue
of
Liberty,
a
symbol
of
the
United
States,
which,
through
global
commodification,
has
now
become
part
of
China’s
national
exports.
Sometimes
the
titles
signify
the
theme
of
the
work,
as
in
American
Monument,
which
the
artist
says,
“epitomizes
and
encapsulates
Iwo
Jima
and
every
monument
of
war
and
death.”
Andres
Serrano
(b.
1950,
USA)
is
considered
one
of
the
most
important
contemporary
artists
working
today.
His
work
has
been
exhibited
extensively
in
solo
and
group
exhibitions
since
the
1980s.
Serrano’s
photographs
are
held
in
the
permanent
collections
of
many
public
institutions,
including
the
Art
Institute
of
Chicago;
Institute
of
Contemporary
Art,
Boston;
Israel
Museum,
Jerusalem;
Museo
Nacional
Centro
de
Arte
Reina
Sofía,
Madrid
and
The
Whitney
Museum
of
American
Art,
New
York,
among
many
others.
Serrano’s
extensive
bibliography
includes
numerous
catalogues
and
the
oversize
monograph
America,
published
by
Taschen
in
2004
and
the
forthcoming
Holy
Works,
by
Damiani
Editore,
to
be
published
in
February
2012.
Please
contact
Janis
Gardner
Cecil
for
further
information:
Janis@etnahem.com
or
212.517.245
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