Surreal, plastic and really rather fantastic: that’s Antonio Marguet‘s photography to a tee. Ahead of his solo show at Hirst-owned gallery Other Criteria, we talk to the Saatchi Gallery New Sensations shortlist-er about his hyper-glossy art.
What defines your work?
I use photography to think about more abstract ideas. My photographs are artefacts that point to questions in a kind of phantasmagorica and fantasy way; a dose of gimmicky tragedy that mirrors a notion of ‘possible beings’, always masked with a sense of lightness.
Tell us more about your show this week.
I’m presenting Deodorants Games, a series of images that bring into question some of the ideas that fascinate me. More than ever, odor is a matter of concern, but my starting point was the ‘allure’ of fragrances that has spanned domains and which has become a key element of self-branding. Fragrances help to project in others a personal desire according to that DIY sense of ourselves.
Your work has an almost plastic, hyper-artificial feel to it – what interests you about portraying that?
I’ve always had difficulty accepting things as ‘they are’. The ‘natural’ is alien to me or at least is not where I feel most comfortable. Essentially, we have to make do with what is available. In general, my work reflects on certain meditation available to us in our everyday, the way we reinvent ourselves as fetishes through media activities. Maybe the unnatural sight of how we present ourselves infuses my practice.
http://creditnoproblems.com/post/best-way-to-fix-your-credit-13.html
