"Jacklighting"

January 27, 2020

French artist Anne-Charlotte Finel presents Jacklighting at The Chimney for her first solo show in the US. Referring to the nocturnal hunting practice of shining bright lights throughout dark fields in order to momentarily stun animals, Jacklighting proves itself both weird and wonderful. Finel's work, focused on spaces affected by unnatural lighting systems, is composed of four reels. And with each video being manipulated both digitally and physically, the story from viewer to viewer may be rather ambiguous.

In Triste Champignonniste (Sad Mushroom Farmer), 2017, Finel films a mushroom farm in a former underground gypsum quarry—although it may look more like the ground for a nuclear bomb shelter as bursting shapes and foggy landscapes are cast upon a pink velvet backdrop. Only upon closer inspection may one gradually discern the actual rotting of elements played upon the deteriorating pixels of the film for a versatile look on decomposition.

As is the case with all of the show’s remaining components, nothing is quite as it seems in Jacklighting. The rhythm of the subjects and the landscapes of the environment speak to the title’s permanent state through the relationship between man and nature, attesting to Finel’s expertise in observing the unordinary and inclination to search for truth in the otherwise vastly unseen.

Text by Caroline Brown
Photos courtesy of The Chimney and the artist; Photography by Reggie Shiobara

Jacklighting is on view at The Chimney until February 23, 2020.

Art

Not A Sports Club

Why trophies?

I was raised with sports, playing soccer as a kid but came from a creative upbringing. To me, these two universes have always been separated. The form language in not a sports club is derived from sports but using ceramic sculptures as its medium. I wanted to work with the sentimental feeling of going to soccer tournaments when you were a kid, drinking slush-ice and eating shitty food on my own terms. I started playing soccer again two years ago with some friends, drinking beers on the field after a match, talking shit. I wanted to fuse those emotions with sculptures.

So the trophy format was chosen rather as a prerequisite than at random?

There’s something inherently cool about trophies because it’s already an art object within the world of sports. Everyone has a relation to sports but it seems like a lot of people, especially within the creative industry, keep it in the dark. Sports are fucking cool so I don’t see a reason not to use it in my work.

Do you think that’s a weird combination?

Not really. It felt like a natural extension of my adoration for sports. It’s been fun when people from the art industry asked me what I was working on, telling them that I was doing sports trophies. It didn’t make sense. Fuck, sometimes it didn’t even make sense to me but it felt like an honest element to work with. Sports has always been a part of me but it seems that the creative people of my generation sometimes perceive it as taboo.

Is it hard doing something that people have a hard time grasping?

It wasn’t difficult to materialize but people seem to have trouble wrapping their head around it.

Why is that?

In one way, it’s an art object; it’s a ceramic sculpture that people can buy. On the other hand, it’s a decorative object; people can put flowers in them and use them as a vase. And at the same time, it’s an object of achievement; you get a trophy when you’ve accomplished something. Showing them in a retail context fucks with people’s mind even more. I’m basically having people pay money for something that you usually get as a token of achievement.

Did you make it that way on purpose?

Not really but reaching that point couldn’t be avoided. The objects fuse different disciplines and reference points. Putting them in a retail context when presenting them in Wood Wood just fucks up people’s perception even more. If you look at fashion over the past couple of years, people have gravitated towards sportswear and references to that. You see fucking Kendall Jenner wearing a Paris Saint-Germain jersey and all that stuff but no one uses it for sports. It’s the same with not a sports club; people buy something that you never pay for in the original context of the object. It flips the way things work.

Do you like to fuck with people?

Not really but if my work fucks with them, that’s fine by me. Imagine walking into a trophy store, buying a gold trophy and putting it on your shelf at home. You’d never do that. Making the objects with the retail context in mind was a fun challenge. It makes it more accessible: it’s there in the store with a price and everything—if you want it, you can buy it. It makes it more fun rather than people having to book an appointment in a gallery and ask about a price list. It’s more open this way.

But should they buy it? As you said, they haven’t done anything to deserve it except having the money for it.

You get a trophy if you’ve won something. In my eyes, you’ve won something if you can afford my work. Fuck. Don’t put that in there. Please.

The exhibition not a sports club opens on May 24th at Wood Wood Copenhagen, Grønnegade 1, 1107 Copenhagen K, Denmark.

Art

CHEAP SUITCASE

Throughout history and across a plethora of cultures, the body has been used as a sort of "canvas" or "testament" (whether intentional or not). Tattooing, scarification, wounds in various stages of healing... What is residually apparent on a human body has become a tool with which we are able to interpret each other. Is a bruise a sign of healing, life, or is it a symbol for violence?

A majority of the artists at Cheap Suitcase represented the body as faceless, or cut off at the head. This only allows for further exploration into the potential that our skin naturally serves as a journal. Artists in the show include Ron Athey, BREYER P-ORRIDGE, COUM Transmissions, Clarity Haynes, Byron Kim, June Yong Lee, Bob Mizer, Catherine Opie, Ariana Page Russell, Hannah Wilke, and Rona Yefman.

Whether gender, abuse, triumph or crime is the translation of these physical dialogues, each piece in CHEAP SUITCASE is an opportunity to read into what may have been there all along.

Art

Stacy Leigh's Step Back From Sex Dolls

So you started on Wall Street. You haven’t always been doing photography and painting?

I was doing stocks, but I was always doing other things on the side. I mean, I modeled for Playboy.

That’s cool.

Thank you! I don’t get that a lot. But I was always doing that kind of stuff—photos, paintings… I can’t not be creating, no matter what else I am doing. When I was doing Wall Street stuff, I was so stressed out. I was painting voraciously, nothing good, just mess. But my husband, he came home and saw this fucking painting I did of the fucking guy who picks his finger in The Simpsons. He was fucking crying, saying, "You’re meant to be an artist...do THIS."

Lucky you. That's amazing you had that support.

I mean, I was just like, "I love you." I was miserable. So I quit, and then I got my first doll to sit for my paintings. Photography came and distracted me though. And then Richard Prince found me on Instagram.

High praise.

Fuckin’ amazing. My whole solo show had come about because he posted one of my doll photos on his Instagram. I went from zero to hero. He's my guru. It’s all his fault that I am so exposed, anyways.

Exposed?

I feel so exposed with this show.

No pun intended.

Never. But I mean, it’s strange because my photographs, they're so much worse than this. Some are just… Porn. I mean, some is classy shit. But some is really bad.

Porn can be classy, though.

Not some of this shit, though. But I’ve done serious stuff. Anyways, the painting is a whole new thing.

Are they based on dolls?

No, but I could take a picture of a girl, human, in a fashion shoot, and it could be the most obvious human, but everyone would say, “Ooh, she looks like a doll.”

So there is no sex doll inspiration. Totally separate.

I mean, no, but whatever you want to think—whatever. If you like dolls, sure.

No, no. I came at it first with no thoughts. I saw the paintings before I had connected it to your previous work. I didn’t associate it with the dolls until after my first glance at them.

Good!

Did you think they were realistic?

Almost, I saw them as mostly realistic apart from the eyes. Something not cartoonish, but simulated in some way.

And the background makes them seem a little paranormal almost.

Yes, I heard ghosts, I have heard everything.

Well, then, I drew the connection with your previous work and now it’s hard not to associate them with dolls, to be honest.

I think everything I do for the rest of my life will be associated with dolls.

Do you resent that?

Not at all. Dolls are my babies. They were my friends growing up. Only child.

Me too. I also was obsessed with barbies.

Really? Yeah, I couldn’t wait to get to my Barbies. I also couldn’t wait to look like one. I mean, I would look like a total whore if I didn’t have this dude who does my lips because he stops me. He has to literally hold me back. But I would be a real life doll if I had my way.

That's kind of awesome.

I think Kylie Jenner is smokin’ hot. She was cute before, but I think the fake-y look is gorgeous.

Nice, a non-traditional opinion.

And my mom wasn’t traditional, either. My mom thought it was cute to have her three-year-old roll a joint for her. She was 20 when she had me. Picture if Casey Anthony didn’t murder her daughter, that would be my mom. She just wanted to party all the time, and I was a total fucking inconvenience.

So, question, do you find yourself attracted to sex-dolls?

No, but I mean, if I am doing a day-long shoot and there’s this tight-ass synthetic vagina there, I will start thinking, “DAMN, that shit looks good.” I’m human. But I mean, it’s still a doll, so I just get horny and watch Seinfeld or some shit.

'Nerves' is on show through June 11th.

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"Jacklighting"

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