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Ernest T - [ Traduire cette page en français ]
Ernest T. observes the art world as if it were a strange insect, a creature that is by turns fascinating and disturbing, necessary and harmful, crude and sophisticated, one that secretes its own mores, laws, customs and objects. But he does more than just observe it under the entomologist’s magnifying glass so as to offer us rigourous descriptions followed by bold extrapolations : he also uses his scalpel to open it up and explore the structures and functions of its organs, apparatus and systems.
His first concern is to disconcert, to choose the most perilous and, also, the most humorous avenues, the only ones that can make the whole thing conceivable.
Ernest T. wears a mask, and his mask is a question : Can this be serious ? What the answer is doesn’t matter, it’s the asking that counts. Can it be serious to make combinations of T-shapes in the three primary colors and use them to cover whatever surface presents itself ? Ernest T. puts his finger on the tension between true and false. Puns, outbursts and all kinds of minor explosives hit where it hurts. By running the workings of the art world through his mill, Ernest T. breaks with its usual outward gravitas and provokes a burst of laughter whose unsettling echo refuses to go away.
Didier Arnaudet (extract of Art Press, February 2002) translation C. Penwarden
