Known widely for his immersive work centered on the cultural affect of communal cooking and eating, Tiravanija’s practice uniquely explores the use value of objects and their relationship to concept and meaning. With this latest series of works, Tiravanija returns to some of the major themes from his earlier practice, considering appropriation and utility as ways of conveying concept.
Constructing his signature plywood structure in the center of the gallery, Tiravanija creates a communal screening room for visitors to watch his latest film, Untitled 2017 (nothing rhymes with lobscouse, labskaus, lapskaus, lobskovs). This new film work focuses on a stainless steel stove sculpture, created by the artist in tandem with the film, functioning together as a single work.
Appropriating a small-scale Victorian stove, Tiravanija creates a repurposing of this object, by enhancing it to larger than life size and casting it in steel. This stove sculpture becomes the central feature of the film, where the artist employs it, along with the pots and utensils created to accompany it, in order to cook a large communal stew, of a unique recipe designed specifically for this work. Shot using only a handful of takes, Untitled 2017 (nothing rhymes with lobscouse, labskaus, lapskaus, lobskovs) conveys the artist’s interest in capturing experiences in real time, and having his works relate directly to lived experience.
The principal concept of the stove and film become a communication of the use value of the stove and a documentation of its ability to feed and nourish people. Bearing the markers of its original activation by the artist, the stove stands distinctly as an artifact of its previous use and an emblem of its potential future activation. One of the many notions this work conveys is that of its possible continued employment, across various spaces and amongst various groups.
Interested in examining the utilitarian aspects of the stove from many vantage points, Tiravanija reorients his own original film set from the central work for the second half of this exhibition. untitled 2017 (Lars’ voids) takes as its departure point, cinematographer Lars Skree’s various close-up shots during the making of the original film. This work focuses uniquely on the stove and distinctly details the various elements of its activation.