The exhibition HONK HONK JOKER is a thematically-coherent ensemble of artworks where the film Joker (2019) is the main referent. Allusions to various aspects of the movie are made with fluctuating degrees of legibility, depending on the technique or style of execution, and on the spectator’s familiarity with the film.
Set in early-1980s Gotham City, Joker provides an origin story for Batman’s arch nemesis, following Arthur Fleck, a social outcast and aspiring stand-up comedian who lives alone with his mother and who suffers from multiple diagnosed mental disorders including one which causes him to laugh uncontrollably when he is nervous. The film embarks us in Arthur’s descent into nihilism, setting off an uprising in the decaying metropolis; a path which brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: the Joker.
The artworks in the show are constructed from two distinct components, each with its own set of complex cultural ramifications: on one hand the manifest content (a popular work of cinema) and on the other the language of art. This dichotomy illustrates the antithesis of mass culture versus modern art. Here however, the rapport-de-force is unidirectional: plastic language is subordinate to subject matter which naturally pre-exists the former in the process of illustration, representation, translation, interpretation etc.
Art’s expressive function is applied in support of a narrowly-defined theme exterior to itself, while aesthetic aspect tends towards contingence. Consequently, the recovery of expressive autonomy from the artwork is inversely proportional to the spectator’s prior familiarity with the film.
However, the interpretation of either components, art content and cinematic content, are not mutually incompatible: a correct reading of one doesn’t necessarily preclude a correct reading of the other. The spectator is invited to make case by case distinctions between expressive use and ironic mention of a style and between the expressive mention and the ironic use of an iconic image.
Installation
views
Works
Nicolas Ceccaldi
The Tragedy of Arthur Phleck, 2020
Mixed media on prefab painting
40 x 30 x 2 in
101.6 x 76.2 x 5.08 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Innervention, 2020
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 x 1 in
101.6 x 76.2 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
The Man Who Laughs, 2020
Collage, oil and acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 x 1 in
121.92 x 91.44 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Arthur in the city, 2020
Mixed media on prefab painting
31 1/2 x 31 x 2 in
80.01 x 78.74 x 5.08 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Honk Honk Joker, 2020
Mixed media collage on canvas
24 x 36 x 5 in
60.96 x 91.44 x 12.7 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Barkilphedro, 2020
Wallpaper, rubberband, false teeth, nail on board with frame
28 3/4 x 33 1/2 x 3 in
73.025 x 85.09 x 7.62 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Send in the clowns, 2020
Mixed media collage on canvas
30 x 40 x 1 in
76.2 x 101.6 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Penny Phleck, 2020
Pillow, ambulance respirator
52 x 24 x 9 1/2 in
132.08 x 60.96 x 24.3 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
You’re awful Murray, 2020
Acrylic on framed wall art
63 x 23 1/2 x 2 in
160.02 x 59.69 x 5.08 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Jester, 2020
Styrofoam, enamel, synthetic fur on canvas mounted on board, frame
25 x 19 x 7 in
63.5 x 48.26 x 17.78 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Good dancer, 2020
Acrylic and charcoal on paper mounted on canvas
36 x 48 x 1 in
91.44 x 121.92 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
L’Homme qui rit, 2020
Acrylic on book pages* mounted on canvas
*New York City’s Cab Driver’s Joke Book by Jim Pietsch
60 x 36 x 1 1/2 in
152.4 x 91.44 x 3.81 cm
Twenty years is the time that has passed since Fernando joined Air de Paris to do an internship.
A Sentimental Education: it is the story of a young man, he must have been eighteen, this romantic and sensitive anti-hero who arrives in Paris where lead by a coup de coeur he finds himself a rich new world that he barely understands, filled with questionable characters (like himself), where he negotiates (or dialogues) with past and future revolutions and his own desire.
This double title of novels was composed at eight hands by Air de Paris and House of Gaga as an exquisite corpse and could become the chorus of a song. House of Gaga is the name of the gallery later founded by Fernando Mesta with José Rojas in Mexico City (and now also in Los Angeles). And before Air Paris moves to Komunuma in Romainville, this is a community we wanted to celebrate.
Footnotes
Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert, 1869
Installation
views
Works
Julien Ceccaldi
Secret Base, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
61 x 45.7 cm
Julien Ceccaldi
Secret Base ~ 10 Years Later, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
61 x 45.7 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Untitled, 2017
Crucifix, mirror, plastic frame
23.62 x 15.75 inches
60 x 40 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Untitled, 2017
Crucifix, holographic vinyl, plastic frame
23.62 x 15.75 inches
60 x 40 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Moment On The Bridge, 2013
Glicee and acrylic on canvas
39.5 x 47 inches
100.3 x 119.4 cm
Vivian Suter
Untitled, n.d.
Acrylic, glue and mud on canvas
71.65 x 89.76 inches
182 x 228 cm
Trisha Donnelly
Untitled, 2016 Stone
110 x 60 x 10 cm
Bruno Pelassy
Sans titre. Série Perles, 1995
glass beads, nylon, wood
220 x 90 cm
Bruno Pelassy
Sans titre. Série Créatures, 2000-2001
silk, silicone, beads, lace, in an aquarium on plinth aquarium
53 x 90 x 40 cm; plinth
122,5 x 90 x 40 cm
Bruno Pelassy
Sans titre. Série Créatures, 2000-2001
silk, silicone, beads, lace, in an aquarium on plinth aquarium
53 x 90 x 40 cm; plinth
122,5 x 90 x 40 cm
Trisha Donnelly
Untitled, 2008
Digital video 6 min, looped
4/5, 2 AP
Les Chemins de la Honte is a solo exhibition by artist Nicolas Ceccaldi in which flora and fauna, the two essential elements of the natural world, are the main thematic and structural components of the show. In the same way that wildlife is re-appropriated in this new body of artworks, pre-manufactured paintings such as the ones sold at Pier 1mport have also entered the production of this exhibition and is one of its manifest characteristics.
The artist’s gaze, directed at the regenerative properties of Mother Nature, is impregnated with the heritage of artistic currents which throughout history have drawn inspiration from plants and trees. Like the stalk of a vine tree, this tradition ramifies in innumerable tendencies, one of which found its way through the cracks of culture to blossom across the walls of waiting rooms, hospitals, funeral homes, or hotel rooms.
The anonymity of these places is a normal situation for the frustrated animal who lives in constant fear of starvation and of its predators, and who will find comfort and escapism in such depictions of natural spaces. These windows open onto a path, the path to extinction lying across Arcadian landscapes and clearing the space needed in order to desire and meditate on the brutality with which fate will strike upon us.
The call of the wild is depicted in this exhibition as a reactionary tendency against the metropolis, a common reaction exemplified by the development of tourism, the spiritual appeal of rural sites, and the regain of consciousness and empathy for animal life. The artworks on view assume the role of a condensed expression of such affects.
The physical structure of the gallery has also been subjected to architectural interventions on the occasion of Les Chemins de la Honte.
Installation
views
Works
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Beleth Videl, 2016
Mixed media
36.02 x 48.03 x 1.38 inches
91.5 x 122 x 3.5 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Eulpineault Bian Dyable Servir, 2016
Horse skull, bird skull, duck wings, butterfly, fabric flower
18.11 x 18.5 x 6.69 inches
46 x 47 x 17 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Arnestine Lidemor Vatobal, 2016
Deer skull with horns, butterfly, fabric leaves
36.02 x 48.03 x 1.38 inches
91.5 x 122 x 3.5 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Sopor Aeternus I, 2016
Acrylic on canvas, collaged paper
45.87 x 45.87 x 1.57 inches
16.5 x 116.5 x 4 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Les cris prolongé de la douleur la plus poignante, 2016
Acrylic on canvas, spider monkey skull, butterfly wings, wood frame
39.17 x 51.18 x 1.18 inches
99.5 x 130 x 3 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Post Lamor Goulebyenaize, 2016
Ram skull and horns, resin deer horns, scarab, fabric leaves
14.17 x 31.89 x 10.24 inches
36 x 81 x 26 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Sopor Aeternus II, 2016
Acrylic on canvas, collaged paper
60.04 x 36.02 x 1.38 inches
152.5 x 91.5 x 3.5 cm