Chris Lipomi

http://www.karmainternational.org/EVTs/laaupi.html

This is very strange. I have to figure out what is going on here. Check this press release written in 2006 by Karma Internation in Zurich:

"Chris Lipomi Kukadiku
22nd – 23rd September, 2006

Chris Lipomi's latest series of work is a
tribalisation and exotification of everyday
objects. By arranging them in a certain
manner he emphasizes the primitivism of
these familiar things and points out their
transcultural similarities.
His jungle, assemblage-like installations
bear signs of colonialism and refer to the
way symbols of a strange culture are adapted
in a globalised, touristic world.

In Lipomi's work it’s often Switzerland
that is referred to as an exotic country.
While hiking through the Swiss mountains
earlier this year, the artist found a regalia
of this “strange world” and included them
into his creations.

Lipomi likes to see himself as an explorer
that uses ready-mades and symbols in order
to make something new out of it and to develop
them. He arranges his works in layers, keeping
the different levels visible. These levels contain
all different kinds of motifs, symbols and
references. In this growing , blossoming universe
it’s the very trivial that becomes arcane
and even wild: The flowerpot – a magical
tropical plant, the flag of Appenzell – a
mythical tribal emblem, the mask – the
bushman inside ourselves?

Chris Lipomi's work has recently been
reviewed in magazines such as Art Forum
and Art U.S.
For Karma International, he has created
a dense room installation including a
floorpainting."

W? "...a tribalisation and exotification of everyday
objects...By arranging them in a certain
manner he emphasizes the primitivism of
these familiar things..." Really? I look now for some American writing on him that is less ummm inappropriate.

OK...this is more like it:

"American artist Chris Lipomi (1975, Miami) combines everyday industrial products to create “exotic” objects. By contextualizing these ready-mades, he explores the economics of attention in a globalized world, revealing the notion of the exotic as a racist construct of western cultures. Through several shifts of context, Lipomi draws the recipient’s attention to the aesthetic background of the works, as well as to their double role as functional items. His works recall familiar ceremonial objects from ethnological institutions, and also refer to their own logic of valuation and the function of aesthetics as a component of cultural, evolutionary techniques of ascription. Lipomi shows a series of works at Luis Campaña, which convinces us that the transformation of familiar material into an aesthetic language can serve as a tool for an emancipating kind of cultural critique." http://www.koelnshow2.com/147.html?&L=1#menu