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POMERANZ COLLECTION

MICHAEL ELMGREEN & INGAR DRAGSET

Marriage
2004
2 mirrors, 2 porcelain sinks, 2 taps, stainless steel tubing, soap
178 x 168 x 81cm
Unique from a series of 3 works, each with different curves in the stainless tubing
Inv. Nr. 60
Photo: © VBK, Wien, 2011

Born in 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark
& in 1969 in Trondheim, Norway
Live and work in Berlin, Germany

Collaborating together since 1995 on performances in their early work and now more on creating objects, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, raise in their interdisciplinary practice a set of questions concerning the spatial construction of the self and the enforcement of normative behaviours within the architectural frame. During the past few years, Elmgreen & Dragset have been working on the intervention and modification within the White Cube. They create awkward and often cynical situations with objects of everyday life, constantly redefining the familiar. These disruptions of reality are transferred to the gallery space, thus giving rise to new ambiguous spaces.

Marriage is an identical pair of mirrors and porcelain sinks, joined together by an extravagant looping drainage pipe. The title of the work evokes the couple’s union wittily depicted by the shared drain piping, which humorously and absurdly leads only to each sink, rendering both of them useless. Using apparently innocuous objects, the duo poignantly comments on the institution of marriage and the role sexuality plays in contemporary society.

The highly evocative installation Last Performance leads the viewer backstage and throws him straight into the despair of the missing protagonist. This over realistic mise-en-scène deals with success and failure, vanity and the transience of life.