Any article can be flagged as one which may be biased Abdul (Venezuela, 1978) is a classically schooled painter with a remarkably timid character. Onlarge format paper with a few vivid lines he creates his works. He works figuratively: the themes in his work are inspired from daily life, such as the long words he encounters and that fascinatehim. These themes form their own symbolic language, Abdul feels confident in his work. Abdul Vas is a child of this time, a citizen of the world with a strong connection with the things around him: he uses whatever he comes across: Pokemon, AC/DC,writing and the Dutch language, but his South American background remains an unmistakable influence.
Currently, Cattelan is recovering from an attack of "art rage": a Milanese man was so incensed by his "installation" of three children hanging by their necks, eyes open, from a tree that he cut them down.
Cattelan is often described as a Shakespearian fool, expressing universal truths about themes such as power, death and authority through what appear to be jokes or stunts: a stuffed squirrel that has shot itself at the kitchen table, Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite, a child like Hitler praying on his knees.
And Cattelan has persuaded numerous curators to join in: one was made to wear a giant, phallic, pink bunny outfit throughout a five-week show, while two others had to pedal dynamo bikes to generate the exhibition lighting.
While his art-historical predecessor may be the Dadaist punster Marcel Duchamp, Cattelan is heir to a much broader tradition—that of the clown, a tragicomic figure with a particular resonance in the artist's native Italy, birthplace of commedia dell'arte and the films of Federico Fellini and Roberto Benigni.
Cattelan, on the other hand, is a trickster who stirs up trouble in an all-too-complacent world.
MaurizioCattelan's La Rivoluzione siamo noi (We are the revolution) is on view until February 6, 2005.
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