Closer Look: with Dominique Ansel
Dominique Ansel, former pastry chef of Daniel and Fauchon and collaborator with Terence Koh, discussed with Paddle8 what it was like to work with the artist on the 8 foot by 8 foot square smell based work. The work was commissioned by Kreemart, an enterprise that allows artists to explore dessert as a medium. Aside from the visual appeal, smell is the next connection one makes with food, says Dominique who worked on a balanced recipe that could sustain its scent in a room over a period of time. He says "the difficulty was to have the right amount of mint with the chocolate and keep it together."
-Dominique Ansel, 2011
Video courtesy of Kreemart and the artist.
In Conversation: Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic: My last name is A-B-R-A-M-O-V-I-C. it's like "Abram" Witch" - "Abram - O - Witch" It's nothing to do with Abram but everything to do with witch. But witch people are so afraid of witch - green witch, black witch, white witch.
I'm white witch.
Terence Koh: Not a bitch, yeah?
MA: No, no bitch, just witch.
TK: You don't mind being a bitch?
MA: I am too sentimental to be a bitch. If I do something bad then I cry, I feel terrible.
In Review
New York Times critic Roberta Smith notes that Koh's work "often refers to other art with a mix of reverence and irreverence" with his monochromes referencing Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni and James Lee Byers. She specifically references a 24-foot-long urinal that pays homage to Marcel Duchamp and Robert Gober "while also evoking the communal exhibitionism of certain gay bars." Koh's urinal was exhibited in a three-person show at the Mary Boone Gallery alongside a Jeff Koons' serving set and a sculpture of the imaginary city of Kandor by Mike Kelley. Curator and dealer Javier Peres's stated goal was "to put three of my favorite American artists side by side. No tricks, no gimmicks, no bullshit, just sculptures representative of each artist’s practice."
Roberta Smith. "Crawling for Peace in a Not-Quite Salt Mine." New York Times. March 2011.
Images courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery and the artist.
