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An image of what do you want?

Ugo Rondinone

(Switzerland 1963– )

Title
what do you want?
Year
2002
Media
Installation
Medium
wood, mirror, plaster, speakers, sound
Dimensions
429.0 x 650.0 x 5.0cm overall
Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
John Kaldor Family Collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Accession number
247.2011
Copyright
© the artist
Location
Contemporary galleries
Further information

Spanning a broad array of material practices and media, Ugo Rondinone’s works are often unsettling and deal with themes of isolation and disenchantment. At once distinct and interrelated, the works installed in this room cross-pollinate, shaping a single narrative. The looped conversation of the wall and sound installation ‘what do you want?’ suggests a relationship permeated with miscommunication, doubt and loneliness. Coupled with this soundtrack, the reclining clown in ‘if there were anywhere but desert. wednesday’ appears bored and disaffected. In a similar vein of inversion and directionlessness, ‘all MOMENTS stop here and together we become every memory that has ever been’. resembles a window, yet rather than opening onto a view, it reflects the interior space back onto itself in sombre black tones.

Bibliography (3)

John Kaldor Family Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2011), Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874).

40 years: Kaldor Public Art Projects (2009), Sophie Forbat (Australia) (Editor), John Kaldor (Hungary; Australia, b.1936).

Ugo Rondinone: Our Magic Hour (2003), Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1989) (Author), AUT.

Exhibition history (1)

Ugo Rondinone: Our Magic Hour, (25 Jun 2003–31 Aug 2003), at Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1989), Circular Quay West The Rocks Sydney, New South Wales Australia 2000.