Artist: Nicolas Ceccaldi
Exhibition title: HONK HONK JOKER
Venue: Gaga, Mexico City
Date: July 8 – August 15, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Gaga, Mexico City
The exhibition HONK HONK JOKER is a thematically-coherent ensemble of artworks where the film Joker (2019) is the main referent. Allusions to various aspects of the movie are made with fluctuating degrees of legibility, depending on the technique or style of execution, and on the spectator’s familiarity with the film.
Set in early-1980s Gotham City, Joker provides an origin story for Batman’s arch nemesis, following Arthur Fleck, a social outcast and aspiring stand-up comedian who lives alone with his mother and who suffers from multiple diagnosed mental disorders including one which causes him to laugh uncontrollably when he is nervous. The film embarks us in Arthur’s descent into nihilism, setting off an uprising in the decaying metropolis; a path which brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: the Joker.
The artworks in the show are constructed from two distinct components, each with its own set of complex cultural ramifications: on one hand the manifest content (a popular work of cinema) and on the other the language of art. This dichotomy illustrates the antithesis of mass culture versus modern art. Here however, the rapport-de-force is unidirectional: plastic language is subordinate to subject matter which naturally pre-exists the former in the process of illustration, representation, translation, interpretation etc.
Art’s expressive function is applied in support of a narrowly-defined theme exterior to itself, while aesthetic aspect tends towards contingence. Consequently, the recovery of expressive autonomy from the artwork is inversely proportional to the spectator’s prior familiarity with the film.
However, the interpretation of either components, art content and cinematic content, are not mutually incompatible: a correct reading of one doesn’t necessarily preclude a correct reading of the other. The spectator is invited to make case by case distinctions between expressive use and ironic mention of a style and between the expressive mention and the ironic use of an iconic image.
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, HONK HONK JOKER, 2020, exhibition view, Gaga, Mexico City
Nicolas Ceccaldi, The Tragedy of Arthur Phleck, 2020, Mixed media on prefab painting, 40 x 30 x 2 in, 101.6 x 76.2 x 5.08 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Innervention, 2020, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 x 1 in, 101.6 x 76.2 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, The Man Who Laughs, 2020, Collage, oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 x 1 in, 121.92 x 91.44 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Arthur in the city, 2020, Mixed media on prefab painting, 31 1/2 x 31 x 2 in, 80.01 x 78.74 x 5.08 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Honk Honk Joker, 2020, Mixed media collage on canvas, 24 x 36 x 5 in, 60.96 x 91.44 x 12.7 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Barkilphedro, 2020, Wallpaper, rubberband, false teeth, nail on board with frame, 28 3/4 x 33 1/2 x 3 in, 73.025 x 85.09 x 7.62 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Send in the clowns, 2020, Mixed media collage on canvas, 30 x 40 x 1 in, 76.2 x 101.6 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Penny Phleck, 2020, Pillow, ambulance respirator, 52 x 24 x 9 1/2 in, 132.08 x 60.96 x 24.3 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, You’re awful Murray, 2020, Acrylic on framed wall art, 63 x 23 1/2 x 2 in, 160.02 x 59.69 x 5.08 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Jester, 2020, Styrofoam, enamel, synthetic fur on canvas mounted on board, frame, 25 x 19 x 7 in, 63.5 x 48.26 x 17.78 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, Good dancer, 2020, Acrylic and charcoal on paper mounted on canvas, 36 x 48 x 1 in, 91.44 x 121.92 x 2.54 cm
Nicolas Ceccaldi, L’Homme qui rit, 2020, Acrylic on book pages* mounted on canvas *New York City’s Cab Driver’s Joke Book by Jim Pietsch, 60 x 36 x 1 1/2 in, 152.4 x 91.44 x 3.81 cm