David Shrigley turns 49 today

Endre Tót | Total questions by Tot

Endre Tót
Total questions by Tot
Berlin, Germany: Edition Hundertmark, 1974
16 pp., 21 x 14.7 cm., softcover
Edition of 300

Reproduction of the questionnaires answered by Marina Abramovic, anonymous c/o Marylin Monroe, George Brecht, Jacques Charlier, Hervé Fisher, Ken Friedman, Dick Higgins, Pierre Restany, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi and Wolf Vostell, and not by Marcel Duchamp.

A second edition from 1982 is available from the publisher, here, for 16 Euro.

Pierre | David Nuancier

Pierre David
Nuancier
Paris, France: RVB Books, 2015
96 pp., 28 x 6 cm., hardcover
Edition size unknown

Brazilian anthropologist Gilberto Freyre wrote in 1933 that race was uniquely insignificant in Brazil, that the country was the world's only true “racial democracy”. Generations of miscegenation, he argued, had made skin tone irrelevant.

This became a point of pride for Brazilians, and as late as the 1950s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) funded research into Brazil’s racial relations, hoping to discover “an alternative model for the racial conflicts found worldwide.”

The notion is considerably more contentious now, challenged by both activists and academics. Examples can be found here, here and here.

But for some, the central premise is still worth exploring. French artist Pierre David moved to Brazil in 2009, and was struck by the variety of skin colours, and Freyre's observations.

“Brazil has a better attitude to skin colour than other developed nations,” he told The Guardian,  “There’s no doubt, because the concept of skin colour difference was recognised very early in their history. Now, it even appears on identity documents. In France, it is forbidden to define someone by his colour; in Brazil, that’s not the case. Everyone can claim his skin colour and be proud.”

Produced while in residence at the Museum of Modern Art in Salvador da Bahia, his colour chart book Nuancier documents the skin pigmentation of forty employees of the museum. David took photographic scans of 15cm of skin from the back of each member of the installation crew. The scans are presented as a fanned book of swatches, with topless portraits of each on the verso.

The artist also worked with the paint manufacturer Sikkens and to industrially produce each of the men’s skin tones. The forty paint cans were displayed alongside the colour chart, and the museum walls were painted with their colours.

Nuancier is available from the publisher, here, for 28 €.

Watch the book unfolded on Youtube, here, and hear the artist speak about the project (in French) here.

Jenny Holzer | Laments

Jenny Holzer
Laments 
New York City, USA: Dia Art Foundation, 1989
VHS tape housed in a plastic clamshell box.
Edition size unknown

Often packaged with the book of the same name, this video documents Holzer's installation at DIA in March of 1989, in which thirteen texts were engraved into a continuous row of stone sarcophagi that recounted what Holzer identified as “voices of the dead.” These lamentations expressed the "before death" thoughts of an infant, two children, and ten adults. LED lights affixed to columns within the space echoed these meditations, constructing an architectural installation of spotlight tombs and didactic pillars.

“This videotape is based on the installation by Jenny Holzer of thirteen stone sarcophagi and thirteen vertical LED (light emitting diode) signboards at the Dia Art Foundation.”

- VHS label

Christian Marclay | Drumsticks

Christian Marclay
Drumsticks
New York City, USA: Paula Cooper Gallery, 2000
38.4 × 0.3 × 0.3 cm
Edition of 15


Hand-tooled glass drumsticks, a kind of 'one shot percussion', incised with the artist’s signature and date.

At a Phillips auction just a little over a year ago, a pair sold for $5,625 US, against an estimate of between $6,000  and $8,000.

Charlotte Moorman performs John Cage (on TV)

Robert Rauschenberg | Guggenheim Retrospective Limited Edition Suite of 6 Plates

Robert Rauschenberg
Guggenheim Retrospective Limited Edition Suite of 6 Plates
New York City, USA: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1997
26.3 × 26.3 cm., each
Edition size unknown

Published in conjunction with his massive survey at the Guggenheim in New York City, these porcelain plates now sell for around $3000 US, for the complete set.