Philippe MESTE
GUN ACTION SEX & MONEY (GASM)
22 Nov - 11 JAN
Philippe Meste is an action artist. His work drives violence and sex
into
the farthest corner of aestheticism.
His actions, which are wrongly seen to be antimilitaristic, give form
and
substance in a natural setting to our blasé fantasies of insecurity
and
violence. He attacks the flagship of the French navy, Aircraft carrier
FOCH with a tiny boat armed with small rockets and activates the reality
of war in the middle of the peaceful Mediterranean (Lattaque du
Port de
Toulon (The Attack of Toulon Harbour), 1993). He plants his sandbags
and
Kalashnikovs in the middle of Marseilles flea market and the citizen
enters guerrilla warfare (Poste militaire (Military surveillance
Post),
1994).
His language is that of the revolt of impunity: The limits of what is
admissible and tolerable are pushed back without hesitation, in the name
of art. Anachronistic inadequate violence that tries to shakes us out
of
consumerist lethargy and an I couldnt give a damn attitude.
He uses his weapons (Gunpower) to explore inflicted or suffered
violence. In this way he connects policed social awareness and the
primary rebellious subconscious. Defending and attacking. Yet the
artist
is not a guerrilla or sniper. He is just an explorer of human
morbidity.
Weapons are seen as artistic, they are camouflaged as sculptures, but a
human decision restores their primary, lethal function. Humankind is
endangered by the work of art.
With Robogun Meste takes a more conceptual approach. This
remote-controlled video terrestrial robot makes the human invisible.
The
artist is no longer at the centre of action. He directs it from his
control screen and dehumanises it. The result is an awareness of
violence
without its dirty, embarrassing materiality.
Philippe Meste is also an artist of expulsion. Whether he ejaculates on
icy beauties to turn them into amazing and upsetting watercolours
(Aquarelles) or projects ammunition from his armed sculptures, he
voids
his own body violently, be it directly or through an extension.
His approach to sex is provocative. Indeed, it could also be defined as
reflexive and reactive. Lewdness is in the eye of the beholder,
pleasure
in the eye of the artist. Mestes Aquarelles
(Watercolours) are proof
of his admiration for beauty and the inaccessible. In these works,
artfully shaped semen stains soil (or exalt ?) top models posing for
prestigious brands.
His Women in Love reveal an aspect of desired but reproved
pleasure,
that of skin flicks. The porn stars step into models shoes and the
message slides towards the social, i.e., these women share mens
stereotyped visions of them. With his Sexe Moderne 2 (Modern Sex
2),
Meste introduces submission and violence into sex. Pornography and art
connect. This sculpture, which is made for use, is activated by the
body
of the woman who slips into it to be reduced to erogenous zones offered
up
unabashedly. Its the titillation and frustration of making love to a
fantasy that doesnt pine for you.
Everything in Mestes work is aesthetic. This is a sine qua non of
there
being some artistic value in these so violent, so unhealthy, and oh how
human actions and objects !
Garlone Egels
Brussels, November 2002
more on Philippe MESTE
http://www.aerop
lastics.net/meste/meste_00.html
AEROPLASTICS will be present at ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 5-8 December
AEROPLASTICS contemporary
Director : Jerome Jacobs
32 rue Blanche
B-1060 Brussels Belgium
T (32) 2 537 22 02
F (32) 2 537 15 49
aeroplastics@brutele.be
http://www.aeroplastics.net
images:
- - "The Attack of Toulon War Harbour" 1993 video & c-print - - "Woman
in
love" 2000 c-print on dibond 40 x 60cm ed. of 3 - - "Gunpower N°3 "
2000
resin, epoxy, unique edition
- - "Sexe Moderne 2" resin cast fiberglass 50 x 80 x 60cm, unique
edition
(activated) Paris 1997
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