Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
Private Collection
Sale: Phillips de Pury, New York, Contemporary Art, 10 May 2012, Lot 42
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Bologna, MAMBo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Seth Price, 2009

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although there are very subtle magenta undertones visible in the original. The catalogue illustration also fails to fully convey the glossy and iridescent nature of the surface visible in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The packaging industry is valued at US$ 400 billion, and is centred around objects which are designed to attract the consumer’s eye towards a product, protect the coveted merchandise and be discarded after use. As shoppers, we do not assign packaging a value of its own, independent from the commodity it contains. A highly versatile, cheap and practical material, vacuum-formed plastic was first developed in the 1950s in what would later be known as the first great consumer boom.  It is merely the unnoticed vessel of our fetishized goods. In Repossessed Audi/Bronze Custom Job, Seth Price remarkably shifts our attention towards the surface of this overlooked polymer. A mundane object - in this instance, a rope - is moulded into the sheet of polystyrene, engraving the outline of each of its threads, loops and frayed ends into the hardened shell forever. “Price has used the technique to create ghostly impressions of commonplace subject-matter […], packaging signifiers as it they were products. Which, of course, they are: “Image is everything.”” (Chris Wiley, “Short Circuit” in Seth Price: 2000 Words, Nea Ionia 2014, p. 11). The shaped panel is then painted a luxurious, shimmering bronze, and is to be wall-mounted like any other unquestionably “high art” painting. What is left of the object encased in rigid plastic, traditionally the object of desire once the protective carapace has been removed, is merely visible hanging at the bottom of the composition, partially detached from the reverse’s surface.

One of the foremost post-conceptual artists, Price’s remarkable practice aims at unearthing, deconstructing and re-packaging the psychological mechanics of information, consumption, and image propagation. Archetypical of the artist’s celebrated vacuum-formed “paintings”, Repossessed Audi/Bronze Custom Job isolates the Baudrillard-esque notion of object-valuing, thus exposing hidden mechanics of desire. Instead of the packaged object itself - namely, the rope, an object with no intrinsic value per se - it is the image of its surface, so beautifully encapsulated and frozen in the laminated composition which becomes the fetishized commodity. The productless package is itself packaged into the context of the art-world, which gives it its value – thanks to the parergonal function of the gallery’s white walls, the writings around the artist, the label next to the work. With this subtle manoeuvre, Price not only forces the beholder to delight at the view of this beautiful, perfect, synthetic object, gleaming with its metallic coating, an 🍌object which❀ the art-consumer will desire, but makes the viewer acknowledge that its subject lies within the operations, structures and inner workings of this desire.