Compared to exhibitions in which art objects are meant to seduce us into epiphanic transcendence, the works in ¡°Surface and Custom,¡± a group show at Shiseido Gallery organized by Berlin-based artists Jay Chung and Q Takeki Maeda, are more akin to frank expositions about the exchange of cultural and economic capital.
It feels a bit like the scene in Ron Howard¡¯s 2001 movie ¡°A Beautiful Mind¡± where the awkward mathematician John Nash fantastically fails to pick up a girl with the spiel, ¡°I don¡¯t exactly know what I am required to say in order for you to have intercourse with me, but could we assume that I said all that? I mean essentially we are talking about fluid exchange right?¡±
Chung and Maeda were invited to curate a show to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shiseido Gallery after they used reconfigured images of the cosmetic company¡¯s archive materials in an exhibition in Cologne earlier this year. In their slideshow, ¡°Moulting,¡± photos of Shiseido window dressings, product shots of cosmetics and fashion designs flash by in an exploration of culture as a form of skin ¡ª a covering that is periodically shed in order to facilitate growth.
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