SUPERDEMOCRACY

Vaast Colson & Dennis Tyfus, ever partners in art crime, have again joined forces for the project ‘Radikaal & Radikaler’.  These artists, each in his own way, critically call into question the commercial circuit while remaining allergic to 'recuperation', in whatever guise.  And they often express this in a way that runs from fresh-faced humor to dark irony.  In ‘Radikaal & Radikaler’ they resolutely take on the total notion of the 'art scene' in all its many permutations: drawing, painting, the artist's copyright, price determination, the market, the image… Colson & Tyfus each made a series of drawings on paper, that they at once crumpled up and hid in a grab bag full of paper shreds.  Next, they took turns removing one of these squashed papers and using it as the basis for a painting: so it could be that Colson painted a drawing of Tyfus, or vice versa.  Or they would both work on a single piece.  This painting is one of this series.  The project kicked off in the Trampoline Gallery.  Each work had a number, and each visitor to the gallery could (or can) designate one or more works that they might be interested in buying.  For this, each candidate-buyer would then dip into a second grab bag and pick a piece of crumpled paper with the price - from 100 to 10,000 euro.  If you're lucky, and you like the price, the purchase is yours...

The grab bag is in a way a reflection of current society: everybody grabs and rummages to their heart's content; you might pick a winner, if not, just throw it away.  And the paper shredder plays its role too, as we read in the small, but splendid, gallery catalogue.  For inspiration, Colson & Tyfus avidly mine the cliché-like and the freshness that so typifies 'new painting'.