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Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Magali Reus at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle


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Reus is exemplar of the cartoonification of the world. Everything convertible to plastic, printable. "tradition was wiped out by the invention of capitalist plastic. Labor was reduced to work, and craft became manufacturing processes, became laser cut wood, CNC milled blocks, a thousand interns on call. Suddenly your dreams could be injection molded. Ostensibly." Now the chore becomes pressing print, of everything on everything, Paintings are already printed on totes to toilet paper so why not a wooden spool? The algorithm combines and consumer clicks value. The artist becomes the algorithm in a society that doesn't know what it wants. The great recombinator. Post Rachel Harrison blowing up the mall - it returns as souvenirs. It is not the artist's "semantic ambivalence" - it is the world's. The world is stupid and functioning, and art we are given we are said to deserve. 

See too: Darren Bader at Andrew KrepsSam Pulitzer at House of GagaSanya Kantarovsky, Camille Blatrix at Modern ArtRachel Harrison at Whitney Museum