Exhibition video
Catalog video
Opening: 23rd June 2017 7 pm – 10 pm
Duration of the exhibition: 24th June – 28th July 2017
Ending: 28th July 6 pm – 9 pm
Burnt cheeks, shining lips, erected penises – The motifs in the nudes of art and in film stills of porn movies are the same. But what is the difference between sexual representations in art and pornography? This question is dedicated to Thai Ho Pham in the continuation of the series “Selfish Tits and Selfish Cocks”.
Thai Ho Pham uses for his pictures from the Internet. As inspiration he scans porn portals, stores image excerpts, and uses the Instagram account of art critics Jerry Saltz. Here he can find works of art from all epochs of art history, from medieval woodcuts to contemporary collages. The focus is always on the act.
With a simple image processing program, the artist places pornographic images and works of art on top of each other, reworking them and then printing them on canvas. They mix with new, independent nudes, in which there is no longer any difference between porn and artwork. Each printed canvas is painted by Thai Ho Pham with bright oil paints and applied with the last brush stroke, which makes it a masterpiece as well as unique.
These are the intermediate states, the intermixing of opposites, which leads to comparison and interplay, which fascinate the artist. So it is not only the countertransference of high-profile works of the art history and pornographers from the Internet, Thai Ho Pham also shows the double moral in the social acceptance of sexuality. A masterpiece admired admirably, as pornography outlawed but secretly consumed. Through the combination and detachment from the context, he raises the pornographic images to art and the resulting works to a new form of nude painting.
The contrasting of opposites also plays a role in Thai Ho Pham’s sculptures. His work as a tattoo artist and his work as an artist combines Thai Ho Pham on silicone hands which are used by practicing tattooists. On the tattooed silicone skin, the artist attaches pull-away tattoos with motifs from the art history. Thus, the fleetingness of the adhesive images and durability of the tattoos are opposed. The seriousness of the tattoos cut into the skin are in contrast to the childish decals. The proximity to the ready-made is a part of the sculptures: craftsmanship and service meet the creative freeman of an artist.
What unites both positions is the unusual combination, the mixing of opposites, the removal from the context and thus the creation of a separate work of art, which is crowned with the artist’s final touch to the work of art.
Text: Julia Schattauer
Painting: Detail: Wolke 7, 2017, oil mix technique on photo canvas, 100 x 75 cm
