NYAB Event - Cyril Duval “Voir Dire”

Cyril Duval “Voir Dire”

Johannes Vogt Gallery

This event has ended.

Cyril Duval is known best by the several pseudonyms under which his practice evolves, including
the fictional alter ego Item Idem and the collaborative project Shanzhai Biennial. Duval’s oeuvre is keynoted by his collaborations and a seamless dispersion within a wide variety of fields of cultural production. Expertly moving between the worlds of visual art, fashion performance, and design, Duval often circumvents the usual circuits of distribution and visibility injecting his work directly into culture at large.

Voir Dire is a presentation of new works centered around Duvalʼs fascination with the visual
tropes of late capitalism, and his embrace of their inherent promises and failures. Included is a new series of wall works entitled Princess Diaries, created from détourned cross-stitch patterns of popular Disney princesses in dyed bamboo artist frames. In another body of work, t
he artist made support structures, constructed from various heavily branded cereal boxes and acrylic panels, will hold altered and found objects. The pedestals host three Easter Island heads covered in bubble gum, latex, silk flowers and other materials, along side a melted princess-themed Disney Lego set.

The rear room of the gallery is dedicated to the premiere large-scale screening of JOSS, a video Duval has made in collaboration with Chinese artist Cheng Ran. The video depicts a series of exploding paper objects traditionally burned at funerals as a way of giving gifts to the deceased. It is intended to function in a multitude of instantiations both on and off line.

The exhibition is underscored by its titular piece, Voir Dire, a framed copy of McDonaldʼs
Chairman Ray Krocʼs message to McDonaldʼs crew members in 1979, with a pedestalled pillow
covered in counterfeit McDonaldʼs fabric and holding a pile of artificial sweeteners collected from McDonalds restaurants in Berlin. The workʼs auditory component, a monolog from Kroc and
several McDonaldʼs theme songs, will play for the duration.