Michael Wang presents his new exhibition “Rivals” at Gallery 2.
Just at the entrance of the gallery, viewers will find five certificates, acting as a kind of performance documentation for the works in the exhibition all from the artist’s series Rivals. The artist uses white, metal shelves to present well-known consumer goods from multinational corporations. The concept is that each shelf houses objects of rival firms. The sale of the artwork funds an equal investment in each rival firm as the artist is paid for the work in common stock to become a one millionth of one percent owner of both companies. The number of products included from each corporation corresponds to the number of shares that will be purchased with the sale of the artwork.
The exhibition Rivals links the value of the readymade to the valuation of the multinational corporations that produce and profit from such objects.
The collector, artist, and gallery collaborate to enact a performance of exchange around the work. The repercussions of the action extend into the networks of capital within which the work is enmeshed. If one of the uses or responsibilities of an artwork is its ability to apprehend the present while simultaneously existing within it, Wang’s work can be seen to motivate an evaluation of the most powerful systems structuring cultural production.
Until January 24th, 2015.
Gallery 2 – 544 West 24th Street – New York, NY 10011