Nicolas Ceccaldi
Permanently Tied Up Version of You
PNI, London
The necessity to repaint Project Native Informant in white – after it had been left black by the previous artist- gave Nicolas Ceccaldi the opportunity to perform an in-situ intervention directly on the walls; a 70% recovery of the original state which enhanced the gallery with a raw, degraded look. In contrast, the artworks on display are not only framed and small to medium in size, but also appropriated from a department store. Borrowing from Liz Jameson, William Turner, Lorraine Christie and Scott Dunwoodie, these pictures underwent both external and internal operations of détournement: first via recontextualization and secondly with the occasional addition of paint marker drawings. This succession of hygienic measures imposed out of necessity from above produces a festive feedback loop of reciprocal contamination and subversion.