Artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari have run their iconic, hilarious magazine, Toiletpaper, since 2010 from Bologna, Italy. But their visual aesthetic, “Radical Pop” in their own words, have travelled the world over. Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre brings an expansive exhibition spread over four levels of its Art House by Toiletpaper called "Run As Slow As You Can".
My leisurely walk through the show convinced me the only way to enjoy Radical Pop is to saunter, stand, look, and saunter again. It is a stunningly playful exhibition, immersive, interactive and, if you are interested in going beyond the sensory experience and think about the impulses behind the works, eloquent about the visual perpetuity that defines much of our consciousness today.
Toiletpaper is a biannual, image-only magazine co-created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari in 2010. This is their largest ever global exhibit.
Toiletpaper comes out as a limited edition book and its website offers a post-internet collaged exhibition of animated and video content. Their whimsically surreal aesthetic, strongly reminiscent of the irreverent and absurd pop innovations of American heavyweights such as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol (I was somewhat reminded of the works of the Gurgaon-based art duo Thukral & Tagra too), is best enjoyed when you leave behind all notions of what art is or should be.
Curated by Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs of TRIADIC, "Run As Slow As You Can" is the first art exhibition of tits kind in India because it makes art redundant as just an interaction between the viewer and he art. The life-size works, designed as series of juxtapositions and spatial experiment, wash over the senses while poking, teasing and wresting new ways of seeing. Isha Ambani, who took the initiative to bring the show to NMACC, says, “In its conceptual, often ironic approach, at the heart of this exhibit is the celebration of a curious, exploratory energy that is quintessentially Indian. I am certain that Toiletpaper’s largest show to date will strike a chord with the younger Indian audience.”
Run As Slow As You Can has four sections: ‘Take a Left, Right?’ takes the viewer into a labyrinth of gluttony, desire and repulsion through blow-ups that has obvious inspiration from advertising imagery; ‘Is There Room In The Sky’ warps the perception of space with works that derive their dreaminess through terrific optical illusion devices; ‘A House is a Building That People Live In’ is a cornucopia of dollhouse-like structures presenting the idea of an ideal or perfect home, and simultaneously puncturing that possibility through strange pairings; A deep red saturates ‘The Control Room’, meant to be a showcase of the duo’s inspirations.
Banana, spaghetti, crocodile, snooker balls, lipsticks, cat-face and frog burgers, a bird’s beak pecking inhuman teeth, hens in huddles, beds and duvets, analog staples, a fridge door that takes to “your end”, an India-inspired work specifically for the show which combines the Taj Mahal, flamingoes, a water body and spaghetti, and a neatly-produced VR tour through some the elements of the show—it’s a sumptuous show.
Cattelan and Ferrari, self-confessed fans of Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, ignite an uncanny, uncomfortable feeling be in front of something that can also mean something else. They challenge us to embrace the absurd. You sure can have fun with it.
‘Run As Slow As You Can’ is on at Art House, NMACC, till October 22.
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