B. Wurtz, ‘Slide Cube’ (1979)
35 mm slides, 5 x 5 x 5 cm.
The panel below is what one would see when today’s diptych is closed. The grinning gent holds a scroll that warns, “Leave this panel closed, otherwise you’ll be angry with me.”
(closed)
Upon opening the diptych, the viewer is greeted with an ass shot of the cheeky man from the closed panel and opposite it, a fool who makes a hilarious gesture, mocking the viewer’s disobedience.
(open)
A scroll on the full-moon panel declares, “It’s not my fault because I warned you in advance!” On the right panel, another scroll proclaims, “Moreover, we wanted to warn you so you wouldn’t jump out the window!”
The thistle protruding from the flasher’s undies is a symbol of pain, defense, and misanthropy.
By an unknown Flemish painter.
Gerhard Richter, ‘Two Sculptures for a Room by Palermo’ (1971)
Two plaster heads, painted with gray oil paint, one a self-portrait of Richter, the other a portrait of the German artist Blinky Palermo. The heads face each other across the room, with eyes closed as if each artist is actually looking inward.
Fragment of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller‘s work at Documenta (13), ‘Alter Bahnhof Video Walk’ (2012)
Viewers are given an ipod and headphones and asked to follow the prerecorded video through the old train station in Kassel. The overlapping realities lead to a strange, perceptive confusion in the viewers brain.