Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dregset "Untitled

Text/Photos by Chen Chi-Hsiang. Dates: October 22 to December 19. Venue: Perrotin Gallery. Group exhibition "Paulin, Paulin, Paulin": Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dregset "Untitled – Home Is the Place You Leave." After viewing John de Andrea’s lifelike nude sculptures, one turns into another gallery where a handsome man wearing headphones (listening to music) and holding a book sits in a comfortable leather chair, reading as if nothing were amiss. This is a masterpiece by Nordic artists Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961) & Ingar Dregset (b. 1969). The visual spectacle stirs my confused emotional fluctuations, raising the question of whether this is also a real or (fake) super-realistic sculpture? Upon close observation, it is indeed a living, handsome man performing live on-site. A black-and-white photograph (showing the same posture) hangs on the wall, contrasting with this scene. Coupled with the theme "Untitled – Home Is the Place You Leave," it seems to suggest something about homosexuals within family and social contexts and consciousness.

Indeed, viewing appears to be merely the interface of the work; deeper understanding requires guidance through text and imagination. This is the work of a Nordic pair (gay) artists whose works are intimately connected to personal life, even personal participation. Through performance, sculpture, and immersive installations, they explore institutional power mechanisms, homosexual identity, and self-actualization consciousness, developing seemingly meaningless superficial scenes that permeate intimate worlds, manifesting fantasies of social repression.