Monday, January 7, 2008

HIM



The British seem to have a thing about tweaking the establishment with a combination of art and humor. There's Banksy, Damien Hirst (who certainly seems like a prankster to me), and now HIM - a life sized waxwork of art collector Charles Saatchi by Robert McHarg III.

Saatchi's influence on the art world is legendary due to his reputation for making and breaking artists' careers through his buying and selling habits. In response McHarg created a life-size sculpture which he dressed up in 101 different outfits and photographed for a book just published by Trolley. As you can see it's a droll run across the visual iconography of contemporary art and photography executed in deadpan style. As McHarg points out, "It’s the biggest action figure I’ll ever own, it's all about the artist collecting the collector, a David and Goliath battle over power and punch lines."