initially displayed at Deborah Bowmann - 21th of February / 23th of March 2015
For centuries in West, inoperativeness, idleness and escapism were the domain of aristocracy, bourgeoisie, deviants and outsiders: people who had time and money or who those took it. A major breakthrough of modern capitalist societies could arguably be the one of democratization of boredom and inoperativeness – and the accompanying search for altered states of consciousness and escapism.
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Deborah Bowmann Amsterdam, its representatives and Deborah herself are pleased to present the new collection
Noblesse Oblige, a
Deborah Bowmann collaboration with
Travis Broussard,
Jean-Baptiste Carobolante &
Émilie Ferrat .
For centuries in West, inoperativeness, idleness and escapism were the domain of aristocracy, bourgeoisie, deviants and outsiders: people who had time and money or who those took it. A major breakthrough of modern capitalist societies could arguably be the one of democratization of boredom and inoperativeness – and the accompanying search for altered states of consciousness and escapism. Hyper-organization of people’s time has not quelled this, but rather fuelled the desire for flight. Similarly, we may follow the concurrent history of ornamentation and decoration - for centuries the privilege of the upper reaches of power, became increasingly available to working-classes after the industrial revolution, and are now become omnipresent in myriad ways. Whether it be through the meticulous arrangement of the domestic space with designer furniture, LCD TV screens and art works, or through the arrangement of the mental space with drugs, exotic trips and/or high powered cars, our spaces are molded more than ever by the desire not to be where we are, to be where we are not.
In a heady atmosphere combining suburban, bourgeois and domestic aesthetics,
Noblesse Oblige displays a selection of pieces embodying concepts of idleness and ornamentation; qualities that, at first, might seem opposed to each other, but meet in their respective offerings of alternate realities.
As such, the forms and objects on display swing gently between their suggestion of their ‘real’, assigned function and a dreamed one. Whether it is
Jean-Baptiste Carobolante’s liquor bottle series
Good Business;
the Pipe series by
Travis Broussard, featuring glazed ceramic crack pipes made; or even the
Deborah Classic Bird Cage, an aviary produced by
Deborah Bowmann, the nature of the objects oscillates between futility and escapism, decoration and function. Similarly, the series of monumental plastered and spray painted forms produced by
Deborah Bowmann could be lamps, stands or sculptures, in a similar manner that
Deborah Classic Monochromes and
Deborah Classic Wallfurniture occupy simultaneously the multiple statuses of painting, furniture and lamp. These forms and objects always attempt to be somewhere other than where they have been assigned, affording them the vitality of a silent, yet totally conscious background character of a soap opera - always present and seeking to serve.