Consumer Culture

Numerous objects are arranged around three metal scaffolding poles: kettle grill, beer cans, burger buns, American flag, chips and a Marlboro garbage can, plus some insignia of rural America, such as horse saddles and blankets. But the scaffolding poles that frame everything create an unsettling, even aggressive mood and seem to prevent any free movement.

“Faux Shop” is a sculptural installation and at the same time a shop window for a fashion collection. The shop window mimics a women's clothing store. Lucy McKenzie painted the marbled parts of the installation herself in an illusionistic manner. Like moving ghosts, the clothes were either pinned to the walls, placed in the display, or suspended dynamically from wires. The clothes are from Atelier E.B, a collaborative fashion label and research studio that Lucy McKenzie runs with designer Beca Lipscombe.

Almost life-size, the artist Cady Noland transfers a photo of a young woman onto an aluminum display by means of silkscreen. Holding a machine gun in her hands, the figure stands in our way. The photo comes from a newspaper, the caption becomes a pedestal.

Numerous objects are arranged around three metal scaffolding poles: kettle grill, beer cans, burger buns, American flag, chips and a Marlboro garbage can, plus some insignia of rural America, such as horse saddles and blankets. But the scaffolding poles that frame everything create an unsettling, even aggressive mood and seem to prevent any free movement.

Alex Katz paints his wife Ada in a fashion classic—the black cocktail dress. Like a photo shoot, she is shown in six different poses and from changing perspectives; only the dress remains the same. The painted image looks flat, as if the artist wants to put the surfaces in the foreground. He succeeds in this with his recognizable painting style, where there is not one brushstroke too many.

Andy Warhol’s first silkscreens, made in early 1962, took the front and back sides of one- and two-dollar bills as their motif. In this version, the artist prints the front of a one-dollar bill he drew himself onto the canvas. He colors the background green with diluted watercolor, and stains the main motif with blood-red paint.

Four headless mannequins are lined up in a row, one behind the other. Artist Alexandra Bircken has sewn parts of used motorcycle clothing directly onto the plastic bodies with filler cotton and silk tights. The abrasion from accidents on the motorcycle clothing, as well as the hand stitching, act like scars on sculptures. Reuse of already used materials occurs frequently in Alexandra’s works.

Each of the photographed boxes is covered with a Plexiglas sleeve, protecting it from possible exposure. Louise Lawler’s photograph of packaging is applied as wallpaper in the museum, matching the proportions of the particular wall on which it is seen. The resulting distortion of the image draws the focus not only to the contents, but also to the space. The photograph thus shows what we usually disregard when looking at pictures: the wall and hence the frame in which art is presented.

The photo of the singer Elvis Presley in the role of a gangster is the basis for this work. Andy Warhol repeated the same motif three times on a silver canvas. This repetition was made possible by the silkscreen technique, in which Andy Warhol saw many advantages for his artistic work. The pale figure of Elvis stands out against the metallic background as if in an old film or fog.