Jonathan Monk: Exhibit Model Six 鈥� The Tel Aviv Version
Jonathan Monk (*1969, Leicester, United Kingdom; lives and works in Berlin) creates works rooted in a playful engagement with the history of postwar and contemporary art, mainly with the so-called 鈥渁rt +鈥� movements of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Conceptual Art, Minimal Art, and Arte Povera. In his continuous appropriation, research, rediscovery, and reinterpretation of works by John Baldessari, Sol LeWitt, Alighiero Boetti, and others Monk induces us to reflect on pieces that may seem familiar and yet, in their present metamorphosis, appear completely strange. This ambivalent feeling seems to derive from our deep conviction that we know what we are looking at, but not quite, not really: it could very well be either identical to the thing itself, or something else. Versatile and ironic, Monk has worked in various media, and his engagement with and references to various historical and contemporary actors and factors in the art field 鈥� artworks, artists, spectators, curators, gallerists, and collectors 鈥� seems to be constant. Furthermore, he invites spectators to activate their prior knowledge, memory, and connoisseurship of this field, by referencing iconic works by artists from previous generations 鈥� which can get as close to his own generation as Jeff Koons and Martin Kippenberger, such as in Monk鈥檚 series based on Koons鈥檚 iconic sculpture Rabbit (1986) or on Kippenberger鈥檚 legendary series 鈥淒ear Painter, Paint for Me鈥� (1981).
On the occasion of his solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv, the artist will present the latest, sixth, iteration of a project called 鈥淓xhibit Model鈥� that he has been showing in modified forms since 2016 in Kunsthaus Baselland (2016), Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (2016), VOX, Montreal (2017), Kindl Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2019), and the bathroom at Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York (2019). The idea for 鈥淓xhibit Model鈥� was born of the artist鈥檚 desire to offer a new take on the conventional framework of realizing an art exhibition as well as budgetary constraints. Thus, the artist decided to replace a straightforward exhibition of objects with a 2D photo installation made up of a wallpaper presenting images of some of his previous exhibitions. Covering all the walls of the exhibition space, the wallpaper does resemble a model of a planned exhibition. However, based literally and metaphorically, as it is, on the notion of reflection, rather than model of a future exhibition, 鈥淓xhibit Model鈥� only looks like one. Thus, it generates a somewhat disorienting encounter with the images. Such a proposition brings into the physical exhibition space a similar experience to that provided nowadays by the 鈥渕etaphysical鈥� cyberspace of the Internet, where a growing number of people search for installation views of exhibitions they are unable to visit in person.
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Jonathan Monk (*1969, Leicester, United Kingdom; lives and works in Berlin) creates works rooted in a playful engagement with the history of postwar and contemporary art, mainly with the so-called 鈥渁rt +鈥� movements of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Conceptual Art, Minimal Art, and Arte Povera. In his continuous appropriation, research, rediscovery, and reinterpretation of works by John Baldessari, Sol LeWitt, Alighiero Boetti, and others Monk induces us to reflect on pieces that may seem familiar and yet, in their present metamorphosis, appear completely strange. This ambivalent feeling seems to derive from our deep conviction that we know what we are looking at, but not quite, not really: it could very well be either identical to the thing itself, or something else. Versatile and ironic, Monk has worked in various media, and his engagement with and references to various historical and contemporary actors and factors in the art field 鈥� artworks, artists, spectators, curators, gallerists, and collectors 鈥� seems to be constant. Furthermore, he invites spectators to activate their prior knowledge, memory, and connoisseurship of this field, by referencing iconic works by artists from previous generations 鈥� which can get as close to his own generation as Jeff Koons and Martin Kippenberger, such as in Monk鈥檚 series based on Koons鈥檚 iconic sculpture Rabbit (1986) or on Kippenberger鈥檚 legendary series 鈥淒ear Painter, Paint for Me鈥� (1981).
On the occasion of his solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv, the artist will present the latest, sixth, iteration of a project called 鈥淓xhibit Model鈥� that he has been showing in modified forms since 2016 in Kunsthaus Baselland (2016), Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (2016), VOX, Montreal (2017), Kindl Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2019), and the bathroom at Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York (2019). The idea for 鈥淓xhibit Model鈥� was born of the artist鈥檚 desire to offer a new take on the conventional framework of realizing an art exhibition as well as budgetary constraints. Thus, the artist decided to replace a straightforward exhibition of objects with a 2D photo installation made up of a wallpaper presenting images of some of his previous exhibitions. Covering all the walls of the exhibition space, the wallpaper does resemble a model of a planned exhibition. However, based literally and metaphorically, as it is, on the notion of reflection, rather than model of a future exhibition, 鈥淓xhibit Model鈥� only looks like one. Thus, it generates a somewhat disorienting encounter with the images. Such a proposition brings into the physical exhibition space a similar experience to that provided nowadays by the 鈥渕etaphysical鈥� cyberspace of the Internet, where a growing number of people search for installation views of exhibitions they are unable to visit in person.
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