f genious is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, Closky fits the formula. He works with an energy some call «obsessive-compulsive». But he also inverses the genious ratio, as his book Coloriage (onestar press, 2001) shows. Since his early days with The Frères Ripoulin, a Parisian art/music collective of which he was part in the 80s, Closky has worked his way in hard conceptual pursuit of the absurd in the logical and the logical in the absurd. He has also put together a CV festooned with ministerial ribbons above a highly respectable tally of exhibitions and publications.Recently Closky’s multiplicitous European showings reached such a continental mass that he popped up in New York with a one-man show at Location One (fall 2003). Many French artists merit better play in the States, and Closky is definitely one of them. It’s revealing to compare recent American with European criticism of Closky. Europeans usually take to his work immediately, maybe because they are all primed from the get-go for a little deconstruction lite. Americans can’t decide what to make of him, which is odd since Closky picked up many of his tricks-of-trade in the States. Dike Blair warns readers (Art Forum, 10/03) that they will oscillate between fascination and irritation; but Blair’s article is informed and gracious compared to Ken Johnson’s in the NY Times (10/28/03), where Johnson wonders if Closky’s work is “really dumb entertainment.” Almost everybody, American and European, likes to postulate that there is something behind Closky’s work, some grand artistic or social scheme of which we are seeing, presumably, bits and pieces (“visual nibbles,” as Blair puts it). Maybe there is and maybe there isn’t, but hey, isn’t that kind of like life?
Go to www.sittes.net
Choose one. See where it gets you.
Check out Coloriage at onestar press.
Richard Dailey
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