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PostWar & Contemporary
3482
SYLVIE FLEURY(Geneva 1961 - lives and works in Geneva)
First Spaceship on Venus. 1995.
Galvanised steel sheet and steel.
Height 218 cm.
Light rust and corrosion traces.
Sylvie Fleury, born in Geneva in 1961, is an
artist who produces objects, installations
and performances. Since the 1990s she
has attracted attention with her objects
and installations based on luxury goods
such as cosmetics and fashion. These
works, like “C’est la Vie!” from1990, with
a pile of shopping bags from luxury bands
such as Chanel, allude to today’s consume-
rism and the great power and aura of these
omnipresent brands. Many see in this a
critique or at least an analogy withmodern
consumerismwithin art. Even here, many
new collector “consumes” art as a luxury
item, and, as soon as the vernissage is over,
art galleries are already preparing them-
selves for a new exhibition. Art, like the
latest fashion trend, is quickly consumed
and rapidly changed. Yet Fleury does not
carry out a direct critique of this process,
but rather presents it as a fact and a reality
within the given space. It is left to the view-
er to reflect critically upon this matter.
Fleury also introduces something very
feminine through her work, in what is a
male dominated art scene. Many of her
pieces comprise typically male objects
such as cars, motors or rockets, which
Fleury clothes in a very feminine material
or colour. Thus we find fur-clad or highly
polished spaceships in the colours of the
latest cosmetics collection, or golden high
gloss motors and tyres.
The present piece - a spaceship, made
of steel and zinc-plated steel sheeting,
with its shimmering polished surface, is
a wonderful example of Fleury’s play with
traditionally masculine objects. Moreover,
it provides an opportunity for reflection
around cosmic delimitations, the universe
and the tensions between art and spheres
of belief - another important theme of her
work.
CHF 15 000 / 25 000
(€ 13 890 / 23 150)