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First 1992 English edition of the legendary Post Human exhibition catalogue, published on the occasion of the touring exhibition curated by Jeffrey Deitch, June 1992—October 1993. Post Human brought together the work of leading young international artists confronting a new artificial “real” world; a new figuration. The participating artists examine the media’s obsession with the “virtual reality” of the body beautiful through works that reveal the neuroses that plague contemporary society. In Deitch's words, this lavishly designed catalogue "explores the implications of genetic engineering, plastic surgery, mind expansion, and other forms of body alteration, to ask whether our society is developing a new model of the human being. It poses the question of whether our society is creating a new kind of post-human person that replaces previous constructions of the self. Images from the new technological and consumer culture and the new, conceptually oriented figurative art of thirty-six young artists will endeavor to give us a glimpse of the coming post-human world."
Featuring the work of Dennis Adams, Janine Antoni, John M Armleder, Stephan Balkenhol, Matthew Barney, Ashley Bickerton, Taro Chiezo, Clegg & Guttmann, Wim Delvoye, Suzan Etkin, Fischli / Weiss, Slyvie Fleury, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Damien Hirst, Martin Honert, Mike Kelley, Karen Kilimnik, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, George Lappas, Annette Lemieux, Christian Marclay, Paul McCarthy, Yasumasa Morimura, Kodai Nakahara, Cady Noland, Daniel Oates, Pruitt & Early, Charles Ray, Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Pia Stadtbäumer, Meyer Vaisman, Jeff Wall.
"Post Human was virtually a manifesto trumpeting a new art for a new breed of human. As Deitch’s text explained in the fragmented mottos that punctuated the billboard-style graphics of Dan Friedman’s catalogue design, “It is becoming routine for people to try to alter their appearance, their behavior, and their consciousness beyond what was once thought possible.” And we go on to read, “With the embrace of artificiality, Realism as we used to know it may no longer be possible.” The glossy color plates spoke volumes, whether the illustrations came from art or from “life.” The catalogue was to become something of a cult item that triggered the imaginations of many younger artists. Here was a permanent anthology of the “posthumanity” that surrounds us not only in galleries but on television, in magazines, even in real life, where the friendly androids among us chatter on about Botox and face-lifts. In the catalogue pages, one could see, for instance, four photos of Jane Fonda in four completely different but equally synthetic guises; Pat Buchanan being made up by a cosmetician for a TV appearance; computer morphs of once- human faces; before-and-after bellies and buttocks; and dead center, a profile view of Michael Jackson, clearly the sun god of this new solar system, who would later be deified by Jeff Koons.
This pure plastic environment, whether peopled by Ivana Trump or Barbie, set the stage for the artists in the show, whose works played perfectly in this parallel universe that was quickly replacing that old-fashioned thing called Nature. The result was a complete reshuffling of the contemporary-art deck, with an international mix of thirty-six artists (singles and pairs) that embraced Thomas Ruff and Jeff Wall, Clegg & Gutmann and Pruitt/Early, Damien Hirst and Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney and Yasumasa Morimura, Charles Ray and Martin Kippenberger. A new dynasty had installed itself, and this ruling class demanded fitting ancestry."—Robert Rosenblum, Artforum (October 2004)
"Looked at from the point of view of being difficult cultural issues to a broader public than usual, the project Post Human could not have come about at a better time. (…) Deitch’s central thesis—that the voluntary manipulation of the human body through surgery, cosmetics and exercise, combined with recent technologies allowing us to simulate the experience of reality, have produced a culture in which the body no longer serves as a cohesive, organic reference point—fits well in an age in which pop starts, politicians and even artists themselves seem to delight in changing their physical identities to suit their purposes. No longer the domain of privacy and difference, the body has become a public crossroads where the merging of real and artificial, organic and synthetic, and even good and evil, is taking place right before our very (ahem) eyes."—Dan Cameron, Frieze (September–October 1992)
Very Good copy.
File under:
Dennis Adams
Janine Antoni
John M Armleder
Stephan Balkenhol
Matthew Barney
Ashley Bickerton
Taro Chiezo
Clegg & Guttmann
Wim Delvoye
Suzan Etkin
Fischli / Weiss
Slyvie Fleury
Robert Gober
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Damien Hirst
Martin Honert
Mike Kelley
Karen Kilimnik
Martin Kippenberger
Jeff Koons
George Lappas
Annette Lemieux
Christian Marclay
Paul McCarthy
Yasumasa Morimura
Kodai Nakahara
Cady Noland
Daniel Oates
Pruitt & Early
Charles Ray
Thomas Ruff
Cindy Sherman
Kiki Smith
Pia Stadtbäumer
Meyer Vaisman
Jeff Wall
Fischli & Weiss
David Weiss
Peter Fischli
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli/David Weiss
Jeffrey Deitch
FAE Musee d'Art Contemporaine Pully / Lausanne
Group Shows / Collections
Transgressive / Visceral / Abject
Sculpture / Installation
Photography
Conceptual Art
Out-of-print / Rare
