Iteration: The Most Telling Statement of the Fair?

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (The Days of This Society is Numbered), acrylic and newspaper on linen, Gavin Brown Enterprise, D11, All Photos AFC

Do Rirkrit Tiravanija’s text based paintings signify a larger theme at the fair? According to one colleague, they don’t, but Stephanie Syjuco’s Copystand re-fabricating the work might. “I’ve seen everything here before,” he complained going on to explain why he thought the Copystand made such a timely statement, “They’re reproducing Tiravanija’s already shitty paintings made out of newsprint and other cheap materials, with their own cheap materials!” In other words, through iterating a cheap iteration (and interpretation) of world events, the work makes clear how little there is of value at the fair.

Stephanie Syjuco, Copystand, An Autonomous Manufacturing Zone, P7