A fake smile Mona Lisa

Result #1

A fake smile Mona Lisa  comes to mind—a blank, deadpan face, with an ear-to-ear smile, with a blank expression, and a blank stare—for the image of a woman holding a snake in her mouth. The smile is a cartoonish smirk, and the snake is an abstracted creature of space and time, and the two of them look like two clowns. Hanging on the walls next to the gallery windows was a flat-screen TV, with a single channel showing the scene of the robbery. In the fourth room was an ersatz dollhouse with a set of shelves and a floor of pillows piled up. A red and black couch lay on the floor. A huge bubble of candy lay on a table; next to the table was a small, false mattress.The room was filled with the sounds of the artists singing, his voice, like a desperate cry, The cops will be here! The song could be heard over the sounds of police sirens. And the voices were part of the sound track for the video, which was shown on a screen in the room—at once the video and the video. The music was about the everyday, the police, and everyday life. The video was a form of hallucination. The scene was a dreamscape, and the police were the dreamers.In the room, Mona Lisa, 2002, and The Ten Thousand Year Blood Dragon, 2001, were shown on two monitors. On one monitor, the video was projected on the wall, while on the other, the paintings hung on the wall. The juxtaposition of the two images created a dreamlike atmosphere; the video was a dream that had become reality.On the floor in the gallery, a pile of trash was piled up. This was the scene of the crime. The pile of trash was the same one the thief left behind; the police had taken away.

Result #2

A fake smile Mona Lisa is reproduced as a series of fleshy, ivory-tinted images. In a gesture that could be interpreted as a self-referential dig at her own role as an iconoclast, the image is projected onto the nearby walls.The surrealistic edges of the gallery space are further heightened by the wall texts, which depict the artist in various roles: as a homosexual, a passive witness, a victim, and a witness of crimes. Given the problematic relation between language and the body, the work is surprisingly touching. The text, written by a gay activist, is eloquent in its call for a critical and transgressive investigation of identity and representation. It asks that the art be transformed into a message of civil rights and for an alternative to the culture of consumerism that is the ultimate goal of the culture industry. It is, however, disappointing that the gallery space is not transformed into a more appropriate setting for the presentation of such work.The works in this show also address the spectacle of the body as a consumer of images and commodities. The latex-covered body of a young male fan, for example, is projected onto the walls of the gallery. Its mask has been pulled back, revealing a bulging phallus. The latex also covers the penis of another fan, who holds a fan against his cheek. But there are other male spectators to be reckoned with. In a series of projections, four male fans are projected onto the wall, and one of them is even playing with a fan. The fans are then projected onto the walls themselves. In the end, all four objects are also visible, but for the viewer to see them in the flesh. This works to further emphasize the hetero-erotic aspect of the exhibition. The fans are presented as objects, and the projectors are presented as objects, but nowhere in the installation is this homoerotic aspect emphasized as it is in the rest of the gallery space.

Result #3

?" (Mona Lisa , 1961–66) or a beautiful full-body nude, as in a rendering of the iconic Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa, 1961–66), or a better, more authentic Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa, 1961–66). The recognition of these examples makes the message clear: While it is easy to be seduced by the art of the Abstract Expressionist, it is not easy to recognize it as feminist art. The French language is simply not up to the task.Of course, some artists have taken a more traditional approach, but the aim remains the same: to make visible the dualities of gender and sexuality, to challenge the very notion of a gender identity. André Breton, for one, used to describe his work as eroticism in general, and of femininity in particular, in his portraits of women. Annette Messager has taken up this theme, presenting herself as the alter ego of the artist. Her erotic images are rather banal—for example, one of the many works in her series Herstory, 2009–, in which a photo of the artist is printed in reverse on a cardboard box—but Messagers eroticism is not banal, but is a direct assault on the binaries of the male and female.The show included two pieces that were equally unsatisfying: one was an installation in a gallery, the other an installation in the gallery, where Messager had arranged an empty table on the floor, on top of which was a pair of headphones. In the former case, the headphones were plugged into an amp; in the latter case, they were placed on the floor. These pieces seem to suggest that Messager is not really interested in sexual identity. And that his appropriation of the female body is also a tribute to her feminine subjectivity.

Result #4

icocele (Mona Lisa icocele) (all works 2010), a poster of a woman with a fake smile, stuck on a wall in the courtyard of the gallery, like an emaciated doll, is part of the series Art & Anarchy. Caught in the act of a crime, the sculpture is placed on the floor in the form of a newspaper, which exposes her to the world, and, being a crime, is exposed to her. The piece would seem to be a commentary on the work of Robert Gober, whose photographs, which capture the artist in various locations, are treated as if they were pieces of evidence in a criminal investigation. The same can be said of the installation A Fragrance for the Devil, which features a smashed and thrown bottle, the window of the gallery torn open, and a large piece of wood lying on the floor. Only by peeking through the window and moving to the right to see what lies beyond can one see the whole thing. The implication is that a crime took place; a crime that, when committed, can never be forgotten. The destroyed window, for instance, can never be seen as the crime that it is, only as a part of the painting.The viewer is a participant in this play, but one who can choose the outcome. Through the window, you can look inside the gallery. The work is not so much about the crime as the law that regulates the works relationship to the world and our perception. In the end, however, it is the work itself that is the problem, and the title Fragrance for the Devil might as well be that of the artwork. Fragrance, as Céline writes, is a subjective perfume that we feel on first smelling, but never seeing, a fragrance.

Result #5

A fake smile Mona Lisa  with a New York City license plate. So we are off. It was a kind of roller coaster ride with the first chair, which stopped on a three-tiered playpen topped with a fake flowerpot. It was like being inside a Macy's store, and the shoes were lined with ice cream. With the help of one of his long-time favorite characters, a mother-of-pearl face with wavy pink hair, the magician painted on the chair, in a lovely snowflake-like pattern, his face on a plastic giraffe. The boys, in black boots and white shirts with fur, appeared on the floor next to Mona Lisa . . . They posed next to her, an uncanny child who, on the occasion of the opening, immediately called out to the mother-of-pearl face, who was seated in a kind of skunky pink-carpeted stage chair. They sat across from each other for just a few seconds before the magician began to play the piano. The music continued and the body changes and the skunky and delirious voices, punctuated by the sleigh bells and a few thumping feet, were replaced by a relaxing, calmer piano. This was the first time in a live concert that Ive seen a performer act in a suit as if he or she were the lead singer in a rock band. The element of time was clearly the subject of the piece, and the kind of sonic manipulation Ive seen in a lot of live music is only now beginning to reveal itself. The music was performed by a synthesizer, and the skunky, booming footsteps were echoed by a synthesizer too, which built up a harmonic body, and then a thumping bass. It was an unusual way to play, and it was probably the most subtle and enchanting thing Ive heard. The next piece was a soundless piece, in which a piano appeared to spin on a string.