Perception

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset have been working as an artistic duo since 1995. Based in London and Berlin, their artistic practice employs elements of sculpture, architecture and performance.

Elmgreen and Dragset’s artworks often recontextualise familiar objects, imbuing them with subversive humour, and offering critiques of the artworld and contemporary society. Many of their sculptures feature highly refined finishes, described by the artists as “clean aesthetics [that] often had something to do with how we created a clash of perfection and functionality on one hand and dysfunction and desire on the other”.

In Perception a large biomorphic sculpture is juxtaposed with a life-size rat. The bulbous contours of the sculpture evoke the work of Henry Moore and Jean Arp. Its refined white surfac, and strangely exaggerated form also appear to reference the fantastical forms of science-fiction. The rat, which perches on the corner of the shiny-black plinth, gazes inquisitively at the object. Its generic features and perfectly white fur suggest that it may be a laboratory animal, bred for scientific research. We can also regard the rat as a stand-in for ourselves, leading us to question whether the viewing of art is the subject of the artists’ experimental research.