Little Sperms is 75 self-portraits in which the artist – using a single latex mould – differentiates between facial impressions by painting the complexion in numerous shades. There are no specific instructions for hanging the work, but the decision to present it “as an explosion” underlines the cryptic way in which Cattelan makes fun of masculine reproductive folklore and technological genetic experiments. Cattelan’s works can also be seen as seismographical events which subject the ideological and economic models of contemporary life to biting criticism in an ambiguous and occasionally absurd way. It is not for nothing that he is regarded as the “Zorro of the Art World”, a secret avenger who suddenly appears and just as suddenly disappears. With casual nonchalance, he scratches away at the image of the artistic masterwork. The legend of unique authorship as synonym for authority has no place in his work. Neither do claims to originality or the forced invention of the absolutely “new”.

He is an artist of light-as-a-feather subversion, one who likes to throw sand in the gears and would never think of following any rules at all.

Georg Kargl, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)