The exhibition presents two video works by Paul McCarthy (b.1945), one of the worlds`s most important living artist. The title reflects McCarthy’s interest, and interaction with the materials – which is not only a working tool but an important part of the work itself.
McCarthy uses ketchup in order to illustrate the blood, and he does not deny this. However, we cannot completely distinguish between ketchup and blood – reality and staging. He borrows formal and thematic instruments from television shows, porn and horror movies. McCarthy enters into a media characterized life in which we are all accustomed to denouncing what we see, but do not always manage it.
McCarthy explores how glamorous popular cultures relate to the darker side of real life. The artist finds inspiration for his work in this friction between the ideal surface and the muddy bottom. The exhibition is a necessary corrective to all that is perfect and conceptually processed.
Paul McCarthy lives and works in Los Angeles California. His artistic breakthrough came with the performance Painting Face Down in 1972. McCarthy taught performance, video, installation art and art history at UCLS from 1982 to 2002. He is originally trained as a painter, but today he works primarily with sculpture, installation and performance.
The exhibition is curated and produced by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, the National Museums Nettverk galleri.
