ARTIST:

Josephine Meckseper

Josephine Meckseper
I Love Jesus, 2005
Aluminum, Plexiglas, glass, lights, C-print, metal display stands, plastic mannequin leg, argyle sock, found jewelry, gouache and tape on inkjet print mounted on cardboard, toilet brush, feather duster, acrylic on glass ball, glass vases
226.1 x 116.8 x 45.7 cm

Josephine Meckseper makes collages and installations that reconstruct the worlds of contemporary advertising and fashion in the context of the gallery, as a way of critiquing the political implications of the iconography of consumer culture.

Josephine Meckseper
Talk to Cindy, 2005
Aluminum, Plexiglas, glass, lights, metal display stands, painted toilet plunger, ink jet print mounted on cardboard underwear box, found jewelry, gouache and tape on inkjet print mounted on cardboard, found metal scrubber, found jewelry, glass ball,
226.1 x 116.8 x 45.7 cm

In her display cases and photographs we see people and things re-objectified, symbolically removed from their original, all too familiar mediated contexts, and rearranged into self-consciously mirrored window dressing. ‘Yes, the mirror and chrome sculptures, glass-and-steel vitrines, and mirror slatwalls are not affirmations or glorifications of consumerism,’ Meckseper says. ‘Their shiny surfaces are meant as provocations for destruction. They are designed to be targets, like high-end shop windows being smashed during riots and protests. These works mimic retail aesthetics in order to activate the commercial zone into a political one.’

Josephine Meckseper
Selling Out, 2004
Window display with mixed media
78 x 148 x 35 cm

In Untitled (2005) a naked mannequin standing in front of a terrorist biography (which also appears in Selling Out, 2004) wears a hoodie and scarf, both menacing and politically charged items as well as emblems of ‘radical chic’. Issues around power, class, nationalism and gender are raised through the fetishised, cropped poses of underwear models and anthropomorphic props in Blow Up (Michelli) (2006) and Untitled (End Democracy) (2005).

Josephine Meckseper
Occident – Orient (RUG NO.3), 2004
Mixed Fabrics
139 X 270 cm

Ubi Pedes Ibi.Patria (Where the feet are, there is the fatherland) (2006) provokes free-associative thoughts of sweatshop labour, bargain basement desperation, social homogeneity and images of shoe piles from the Holocaust. A witty take on cultural consumption, The Complete History of Postcontemporary Art (2005) is redolent with 1990s art allusions, while in Pyromaniac 2 (2003) lifestyle ideals merge with revolutionary violence in a female model on the brink of self-combustion.

Josephine Meckseper
CDU-CSU, 2001
C-Print
106 x 165.5 cm

Meckseper’s politically engaged works highlight ongoing problems of corporate corruption, status anxiety, social privilege and representations of women. They are also a chilling reminder of the excesses and distortions of capitalism, which has created a world in which, she would argue, there is no separation between materialism and political ideology: we are what we buy.

Josephine Meckseper
Untitled, 2005
Mannequin, fabric, found jewelry, inkjet print on fabric, acrylic and fabric on canvas.
Mannequin: 144.8 x 66 x 43.8 cm <br>Painting: 61 x 61 cm<br> Collage: 41 x 41 cm

Josephine Meckseper
Ubi Pedes Ibi. Patria. (Where the feet are, there is the fatherland), 2006
Shoes, display carousel
153 x 83cm

Josephine Meckseper
Pyromaniac 2, 2003
C-Print
101 x 76 cm

Josephine Meckseper
Untitled (Berlin Demonstration, Fire, Cops), 2002
C-Print
76 x 101 cm

Josephine Meckseper
RAF Tray, 2002
C-Print
50.8 x 40.6 cm

Josephine Meckseper
Untitled (Berlin Demonstration, Police Brigade), 2002
C-Print
76 x 101 cm

Josephine Meckseper
Tout Va Bien, 2005
Mixed media in display window
160 x 250.2 x 60 cm

Josephine Meckseper
The Complete History of Postcontemporary Art, 2005
Mixed media in display window
160 x 250.2 x 60 cm

Josephine Meckseper
Untitled (End Democracy) (Detail), 2005
Inkjet print, Plexiglas, plastic mannequin torso, metal stand, mirror on wood
144 x 122 x 122 cm

Josephine Meckseper
Blow Up (Michelli), 2006
Mixed media in display vitrine
208.3 x 243.8 x 68.6 cm

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