{"id":1699,"date":"2014-10-20T21:29:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T21:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2016-08-12T17:24:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T17:24:17","slug":"mccarthy-sex-toy-sculpture-tree-piques-prickly-french-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/mccarthy-sex-toy-sculpture-tree-piques-prickly-french-right\/","title":{"rendered":"McCarthy sex toy sculpture Tree piques prickly French right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Russell Williams<\/a>, University of London Institute in Paris<\/em><\/p>\n

Paul McCarthy, the granddaddy of shock conceptual art, has gone and done it again. In a globally reported move, part-installation and part promotional-stunt to mark the imminent opening of Paris\u2019s Foire internationale d’art contemporain<\/a> (FIAC), McCarthy inflated his 24-metre high Christmas Tree-esque sculpture in Paris\u2019 Place Vend\u00f4me.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take observers long to notice that, despite its appropriately (if a little early) festive green, the innocuously-named \u201cTree\u201d is actually deeply ambiguous, looking more like an anal sex toy than a Yuletide fir.<\/p>\n

As the FIAC press office no doubt hoped, media observers went into overdrive \u2013 pointing, giggling and condemning, but most importantly of all, covering the sculpture and the fracas over it. During the installation, one overexcited local even reportedly attacked<\/a> McCarthy, while the sculpture itself was vandalised<\/a> on the night of October 17. McCarthy has since announced it won\u2019t be repaired.<\/p>\n

Tree has been described as \u201chumiliating\u201d, \u201cinsulting\u201d and \u201coffensive\u201d. It is, however, more than just a cynical, provocative stunt. While not McCarthy\u2019s strongest or most memorable work, the inflatable is actually an astute piece of commentary, one that acutely resonates with many issues affecting contemporary France.<\/p>\n

Conservative revolt<\/h2>\n

The Tree outrage fits into a context of exuberant and livid conservative protest. Over the past 18 months, France has seen the unsavoury emergence of a loose collective known as the \u201cPrintemps Fran\u00e7ais<\/a>\u201d, composed of right-wing extremists, Catholic traditionalists and conservatives focused mainly on opposing the Hollande government\u2019s moves to extend the right of marriage to same-sex couples.<\/p>\n

At the start of October, the activists marched under the \u201cManif pour Tous<\/a>\u201d banner, protesting against gay couples\u2019 access to IVF treatment and surrogacy rights. While ostensibly focused on specific political issues, in practice the collective is more broadly conservative. Its adherents are critical of any behaviour and sexualities that deviate from a \u201ctraditional\u201d norm, or which they see as a threat to challenge the family unit.<\/p>\n

This is the same campaigning conservative right that was recently enraged by the exhibition of Andres Serrano\u2019s provocative Piss Christ<\/a> (1987) in Avignon and Ajaccio, Corsica.<\/p>\n

There is, then, already a prickly conservative climate in Paris \u2013 one that the high-profile arrival of a giant sex toy, particularly one associated with sexual activity other than straight procreation-based sex, was always likely to pique. McCarthy and FIAC knew exactly which coq\u2019s feathers they\u2019d be ruffling.<\/p>\n

Measuring up<\/h2>\n

Tree\u2019s positioning is also a deliberate counterpoint to the notoriously priapic Vend\u00f4me Column<\/a>, which dominates the Place Vend\u00f4me. The column is a phallic symbol par excellence, having been erected by Napoleon in 1810 to celebrate France\u2019s macho defeat of the Russo-Austrian Forces and the ending of the Third Coalition at the Battle of Austerlitz.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a clear visual metaphor for the triumphs of arrogant French imperialism and, as such, has a chequered history \u2013 the Parisian revolutionary Commune voted for its destruction, and it was pulled down in 1871 before being re-erected two years later.<\/p>\n

Its suggestive nature hasn\u2019t only been noted by revolutionaries: none other than the diminutive funkster Prince, who knows more than a little about sex and gender-based provocation, highlighted the phallic connotations of the Place Vend\u00f4me on his 2010 s\u00e9jour to the City of Light.<\/p>\n

McCarthy\u2019s work has equally shown a deep sensitivity to gender symbolism \u2013 particularly his performances Painter<\/a> (1995) and Sailor\u2019s Meat (Sailor\u2019s Delight) (1975) which have consistently challenged the arrogant and heroic connotations of art, male artists and artistic practice.<\/p>\n

Instead, as the critic Thomas McEvilley has noted, McCarthy\u2019s work \u2013 Tree included \u2013 is \u201can exploration of the body\u2019s dark spaces and the usually unspoken implications about what happens there\u201d. By juxtaposing the suggestively anal, inner and implicitly explorative Tree with the phallic column, which itself suggests force, penetration and domination, McCarthy has, in a similar way to the Parisian Communards, condemned exactly these characteristics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that the column is presently under wraps to protect it during renovation work going on in the Place, which gives Tree the aura of inhabiting, even perhaps, temporarily muscling-in on the heteronormative symbolism of the area. No wonder the \u201cManif pour Tous<\/a>\u201d campaigners haven\u2019t appreciated it.<\/p>\n

It also seems perversely appropriate that the inflatable has been vandalised: in forcing precisely the kind of arrogant behaviour it seems to condemn, the vandals have proved McCarthy\u2019s point, paradoxically completing the work for him.<\/p>\n

Dirty money<\/h2>\n

The place, just along from the Louvre and a stone\u2019s throw from \u201cla plus belle avenue du monde,\u201d the Champs-Elys\u00e9es, is globally synonymous with luxury jewellery brands. Shops such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and Chaumet border the square where, on an average day, one can rub shoulders with billionaires, oligarchs as well as cash-rich global tourists.<\/p>\n

McCarthy\u2019s work forms a crucial critical mirror to the surrounding bling. As McEvilley\u2019s quote suggests, it is frequently deeply scatological. His 2007 Complex Pile<\/a> was, well, a huge inflatable turd, while his repeated use of chocolate sauce in his performance videos, such as Caribbean Pirates<\/a> (2005) riffs on money\u2019s all-too-close relationship with human waste.<\/p>\n

That preoccupation clearly calls to mind Sigmund Freud\u2019s work on anal eroticism and his assertion that there is a deep subconscious, and intensely perverse, relationship between glitter, luxury, gold and faeces, a step that McCarthy seems to be asking us to make in the Place Vend\u00f4me. They don\u2019t call it \u201cfilthy rich\u201d for nothing.<\/p>\n

It also seems highly telling that McCarthy\u2019s Parisian adventure is to continue this week with the opening of his Chocolate Factory installation, housed at the Monnaie de Paris, the traditional home of currency in France. In the context of an ongoing global economic crisis and France\u2019s ever-worsening financial standing, where luxury brands are one of its biggest hopes for the future, McCarthy\u2019s artwork is even more implicitly provocative than it initially appears.<\/p>\n

Just a plug?<\/h2>\n

If there is a criticism to be made of McCarthy\u2019s work, it isn\u2019t its obscenity or for its ability to provoke; Paris, of course, has seen its fair share of provocative artworks over the past couple of hundred years. Its major flaw is, perhaps, in the nature of the promotional partnership between McCarthy and FIAC I alluded to at the start of the piece.<\/p>\n

Bluntly, Tree is a promotional stunt to launch the annual FIAC jamboree, a fiesta of art dealers, galleries and billionaire buyers that sees the global art industry converge on Paris. If this really is meant to be a critique of luxury or an oblique economic statement, does McCarthy\u2019s complicity undermine it?<\/p>\n

That double bind clearly makes an out-and-out defence of the work tricky. Still, I\u2019d suggest this only partially undermines it. It shouldn\u2019t detract from the overall challenge the work provides which has re-invigorated contemporary discussion of contemporary art in France. Let\u2019s hope FIAC will be equally stimulating.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Russell Williams does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Russell Williams, University of London Institute in Paris Paul McCarthy, the granddaddy of shock conceptual art, has gone and done it again. In a globally reported move, part-installation and part promotional-stunt to mark the imminent opening of Paris\u2019s Foire internationale d’art contemporain (FIAC), McCarthy inflated his 24-metre high Christmas Tree-esque sculpture in Paris\u2019 Place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":5685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5686,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/5686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}