Can a legal contract be a form of art? Carey Young (b. 1979, Lusaka, Zambia, lives and works in London) for her first solo exhibition in Switzerland at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst mainly focuses on this issue, and presents an overview of her earlier and new works, which analyses the ways the language of law and the legal and corporate systems of power affect people’s lives. Exploiting video, photography, performance and installation, and availing of legal advisers’ support, Young uses law as a mean of conceptual art expression. With a scientific method and language the artist enters (and helps the viewers to enter) the contractual world, bringing the forms of authority into discussion and revealing – while not being short of humor – their lacunas and ambiguities.
Among Young’s recent works, Declared Void II (2013) is a provocative wall installation with a line that delimits an area reporting a fictional agreement related to politics and immigration: “By entering the zone created by this drawing, and for the period you remain there, you declare that you are a citizen of the United States of America” (Ed. Note: the published image refers to the previous work Consideration, Declared Void, 2004-5); By and Between (After Bernd and Hilla Becher) (2013) consists of two photographs: an original Becher’s piece from Migros’ collection hung side-by-side a copy made by the artist and accompanied by pairs of words referring to legal documents; We the People (after Pierre Cavallet) (2013) reflects on the relation between law and performance with a large-scale picture that quotes the famous judge and great drawer Pierre Cavallet, depicting a judge’s robe and wig hung in a garden on a washing line. Young’s law works are displayed here along with previous projects such as The Body Techniques (2007), a series of pictures featuring the artist, alone and dressed in a suit, acting in uninhabited building sites – reworking some performance-based works by Conceptual art, including pieces by Richard Long, Bruce Nauman, Valie Export – that reflect the international corporate control and culture.
Besides Carey Young’s exhibition, which will run until 10th November, Migros Museum presents Collection on Display, a group show devoted to the psychological aspects of space and the pathologies related to it (agoraphobia, claustrophobia, acrophobia), featuring works by Monica Bonvicini, Heidi Bucher, Tom Burr, Urs Fischer, Pamela Rosenkranz, Markus Schinwald, Cathy Wilkes. Once again, the opening season of the museum doesn’t disappoint the expectations.
