Consisting of a series of banners hung from the ceiling, displaying logos of failed banks, the latest outing by the Danish trio SUPERFLEX is derived from a cool idea that suffers from too much coolness. The result is a puzzlingly staid offering from this artist collective, known for its punchy examination of the financial mayhem of our times.
The banners lack the agitprop verve and dimensional range of SUPERFLEX’S recent efforts, such as Power Toilet, a replica of the JPMorgan Chase executives’ bathroom, now installed for posterity at a Lower East Side diner, or their video of a McDonald’s slowly filling with water. Instead, the new pieces are underwhelming (bank logos, like the people who run them, are numbingly bland) and all too readily recall Matt Mullican.
It could be said (as indeed the gallery statement does) that the installation—presented more or less in chronological order of institutional demise—acts as a timeline of our recent economic cave-in. It could also be argued that the artists have injected obsolete emblems with new life. Likewise, one could compare the show’s soullessness to capitalism’s heartlessness, and its moribund effect to the present state of Europe’s and America’s economies.
But such readings are generous: The work is a far cry from the complexity and guile we’ve come to expect from the supple minds behind SUPERFLEX. Unless, that is, the show’s self-inflicted failure is actually meant to echo Wall Street’s own.