[Audio Guide]
Spoerri was an artist in the Nouveau Réalisme movement occurring in France during the 1960s. Unlike traditional realism that sought to paint things as they are, Nouveau réalisme (“new realism”) thought of real life objects as artworks themselves, and endeavored to make these artworks more accessible. On a background of a black board, another small square boards are arranged in a scattered pattern, each one affixed with the contents from a trashcan. Each of the unnecessary, discarded objects brings the viewer’s attention to the circumstances under which they were thrown away, and to imagine the lifestyle of the people who discarded them. The composition of the pictorial surface is achieved through segmentation and
[Audio Guide]
A ballet dancer and poet, Daniel Spoerri is also an artist who works in three dimensions, exhibiting remarkable ability in a number of fields. Created after a dinner held at a gallery in Zürich, this is one work from his series of “trap pictures.” Clearly possessed of culinary talent himself, Spoerri extends invitations to friends and acquaintances, but will ask them to leave the table all of a sudden in the middle of the meal. Items like bread, knives, and bottles remain haphazardly on the table. Spoerri attaches everything exactly in place with glue, and mounts the entire assembly on the wall as if it were a painting. Suspended in mid-air, these objects have lost their function and appear exposed. What should we call this? Spoerri has said the following: “Please don’t look at trap pictures as art. They are information, provocation, or a way of pointing the eye
