Museum Quality.
WISGERHOF, SIMONE LEE (b. 2008)
UNTITLED INSTALLATION
(Cotton socks, dental floss, toothpaste, Klonopin on ceramic bathtub)
I never took art history in college, but my roommate did, and I spent hours quizzing her with elaborate flash cards.
So I’m a bit of an expert on these things, and it seems clear to me that in the above installation, the artist has connected the two socks with dental floss in order to symbolize an umbilical cord. The larger sock is black—black on the outside, because black is how it feels on the inside—while the smaller, younger sock is as yet unsullied by the emptiness and moral bankruptcy of modern life. Well, nearly unsullied. Perhaps it is an adolescent, and the dental floss represents the less literal filaments between parent and and child. Or alternatively, the floss might indicate a progression of time through which the younger, purer sock will become embittered and disillusioned (black sock).
We see in the toothpaste an embodiment of empty consumerism; the belief cultivated by cynical advertising that products can cleanse our teeth (and perhaps, our very souls?) of their stains. The Klonopin bottle is an obvious touch, and an object the artist relies upon frequently in her work—this lack of subtlety likely due to her relative youth. The tranquilizers are meant to signify our need to dull with chemicals the pain of a barren existence, paradoxically only amplifying our alienation and compounding our lack of authenticity.
Note the (relative) sterility of the ceramic backdrop. The “tub” echoes the cleansing motif and yet is literally empty, waiting to be filled only to be drained again, subject to the Sisyphean tyranny of faux-utility and daily routine.
Of course, as I said, I am only self (or roommate) taught, and technically I am not an “art historian,” per se. So I would love to hear your thoughts on the piece. Alternate interpretations? Feminist reframings?References to the Bible, Plato (Small white sock is Ideal? Tub is the cave?), or episodes of Mad Men (Don and younger Don? Betty is Klonopin? Curvy toothpaste is Joan?) that I may have missed? Have at it.
33 Comments
the fact that you can so eloquently bullshit some powerful insight and depth from a photo of miscellaneous items in the tub proves that us artists need to work harder. Or you’re just a genius at artistic interpretation.
Or Simone is a prodigy. I’ll let you decide. :) Either way, it made me smile!
Wisgerhof? Really?
I have no idea what it means, I can’t top your explanations even if someone paid me. Simone is clearly a genius. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree I gather. :)
I LOVE Simone Tub Art, more more more!!!!!
I love this! I took an art history class in college (my brief foray into a possible minor in said subject) and couldn’t stay awake for the life of me! So I enjoyed this post. I’m not going to comment on my interpretations of Simone’s artwork. You did a great job.
Excellent interpretation! I don’t really have any insights to add, other than I am wondering about the significance of what appears to be a symbolic nipple in the upper right corner.
It seems clear to me that the socks are actually representations of the Cartesian duality of the human soul. Good/evil, pure/impure, etc. However, the artist has unseated the security of the black/white dichotomy by demonstrating, via the visual element of dental floss, the connection, thin yet visible, between the two. And although the socks are “opposites,” if you will, are they not, indeed, both socks?
This subversive questioning of the traditional categorizations of duality is echoed in the artist’s use of toothpaste and Klonopin. While one serves as a way for the soul to present itself to society as “bright” and “white,” the other can be seen as private, secretive, and not at all social. However, the way the two are at right-angles to each other shows that ultimately both the prescription medication and the over-the-counter dental care aid point to the soul’s abortive attempts to signify within society, and the fallout said attempts encourage. For does not go unnoticed that the two are, in fact, “circling the drain.”
this is really special. Does she have an etsy?
I think it is obvious that the socks are a modern interpretation of the yin and yang, in which the progression of our culture has not only split the dualistic concepts apart, but has failed to maintain the balance – allowing the “black” signifier of the pair to swell beyond the constraints of the “white” partner. The floss represents the tenuous thread which is the only thing holding it all together before shit hits the fan.
Honestly, I like the etsy idea. You could totally sell this as a fine art print. Someone would go for it. hehe
I love it! Thanks for the smile your post brought!
I would have to say:
The black and white socks are the color of culture, everyone is equal and stands together. The toothpaste is there to clean up the mess that Obama is making of the world in such a short time and the dental floss is to hold what’s left of it all together.The empty bottle is for anyone who can’t handle what has come of the world and needs to calm down…Simone will throw a pill at them! Put the remains in tub for safe keeping. Good going President Simone for all your hard work in getting the world back on track!
You absolutely slay me.
I just love your posts!
I think I remember that you are a big fan of Hayden-Harnett online…Is this true? If so, there is a great deal today at http://www.groupon.com/minneapolis-stpaul/. I haven’t used the site yet for deals, but I know others that have with great success. Anyway, just reminded me of you!
I would interpret it as someone procrastinating instead of writing her book;)
I think it means the tub needs cleaning…
You would totally get all ten points on a test for that analysis. Now do 8 more and an essay comparing and contrasting two of them and you’d ace that class :)
All I have to say…
OMG!…LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
(I have been commenting more lately, than I ever have…and I have been reading your blog for a LOOOOOONG time now! LOL)
I think it is code for “have chocolate cake for dinner tonight!”
Klonopin? really? your kid got hold of your klonopin bottle?
It’s missing bacon. OBVIOUSLY.
I’d like to see your interpretation of my living room floor.
Yes, Dora, and undoubtedly ingested the whole thing while Alexa JUST STOOD THERE HOLDING THE CAMERA. FFS.
Alexa, your tub looks admirably sparkly for someone who’s on deadline!
HEART.
Love your blog and sense of humor. Am so buying your book when it comes out.
Am an art historian (lapsed). Analysis is spot-on. I might include some religious analogies, however. Perhaps this scene is representative of the Visitation where Gabriel (the black sock) told the Virgin Mary (the white sock) that she would give birth to the Christ child. The toothpaste, drain and pill bottle represent the Holy Trinity, with the toothpaste in the tube (currently invisible) representing the Holy Spirit about to impregnate Mary.
Umm..This makes me glad I chose electrical engineering as my major in college. I would have sucked at this :)
(And Barbie says math is hard!)
It seems pretty obvious to me that the juxtaposition of the toothpaste and the tranqulizers indicates a hierarchical relationship between physical and mental health.
In other words, even those prone to occasional panic need to keep them choppers shiny.
The toothpaste indicates an optimism that we can “cleanse” the world of the, so to speak, spinach in the teeth of mankind. However, the fact that the tube is crudely smooshed rather that rationally and carefully relieved of its inner purifying essence brings in that moment of doubt and inner chaos so often covered up by the blurring of the reality of this modern life (psycotropic medication). The dental floss is the endless search for certainty which we understand cannot be attained even by the cleansing pasty goodness of the elemental tube.
The socks? Sometimes a sock is just a sock. Or two.
This is hilarious!!! Love it!
The empty Klonopin bottle represents the emptiness felt by members of modern society, a vast hole waiting to be filled. In turn, the toothpaste is the sterile white substance we ingest to fill this emotional and spiritual void; it can be squeezed to conform effortlessly to every size and shape, while providing no real nutrition.
The white and black socks (representing our idealized and actual selves, respectively) are joined tenuously by the thin white thread of dental floss, a metaphor for the fragile hope we hold for the future. Note that the black sock is much larger; when washed and placed in the dryer of everyday existence, the white sock (our hopes and dreams) will be swallowed whole and will disappear.
How, in the world, did you let the Klonopin bottle get empty? That is what my mind wants to know.
Loved this, and The Smiths reference (black on the outside, because black is how it feels on the inside) – cracked me up! Your artist in the making…she’s so dark.:)
Clearly an example of post-commercialist modernism, the non-organic forms representing the reliance of society on cosmetic and pharmaceutical trickery is literally “going down the drain”, while the softer organic shapes, complementing each other in form and color, are connected with a delicate tendril of low-tech hygiene. The black sock is bold in it’s statement of spatial existence and the white one is modest in it’s obvious un-bleached honesty.
The artist separates the organic forms of original humanity and ingenuity from the aggressively manufactured shapes of conglomerate production on a single plane of porcelain, representing the hard, cold choices we must all make on a daily basis.
2 Trackbacks
[...] those are not disembodied treetops floating in the sky, but clouds. As Alexa’s trained eye could surely tell, my artistic endeavors incorporate a deliberate stylistic [...]
[...] Alexa of Flotsam clues us in: it’s not a mess, it’s an installation. [...]