Bruised Safes (A and B)
Jasper Spicero & Bunny Rogers
floor safes, make-up, glitter and newsprint
safe A: 35 × 45 × 32 cm; safe B: 49 × 36 × 44.5 cm; total dimensions variable
2013
Acquisition 2015
Inv. No. 0298
Insane Cancer (cell 1 and 2), Bruised Safes (A and B) and Koudelka form part of an ongoing collaboration between artists Jasper Spicero and Bunny Rogers entitled Random House. For Spicero, the project started “by playing early survival horror video games like Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Parasite Eve, Koudelka, The Mirror Lied and Juggernaut. At the same time as playing these games, I noticed that my favorite books were mostly published by Random House. From there, I started researching the company, making connections between early survival horror games and Random House, searching for midi files and collecting images online. Eventually, my research led to a story, sketches for sculpture and a soundtrack.”
Comprising alumide 3D printed trees, a girlʼs jacket, Precious Moments “Sugar Town Skating Pond” figurines, floor safes with make-up, old ice skates, the installation holds within its various components the oppressive tension of post-event. Certainly, narrative and effect are significant elements of the workʼs structure as a network of relations. The dramatic script that links the various objects was written by Spicero as part of the Random House project. In the following excerpt from Spicero and Rogersʼ “story,” each component becomes bound together:
Surviving here is all about perspective
– –
Scene: Crying Boyd walks the hallways of Random House. He extends one arm to the black marble wall. It is layered with ash. His fingers leave traces like ice-skates.
B: When I see you, the world stops. It stops and all that exists for me is you and my eyes staring at you. Thereʼs nothing else. No noise, no other people, no yesterday, no tomorrow. There is only you.
**** Boyd picks up his pace as though he is chasing after something.
Through tears we see a blurry shape waddling ahead. It vanishes into Petalbergʼs office.
Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2015 (translation: Virginia Dellenbaugh)
Continue readingExhibitions
Small Medium Large. Sculptures and Objects from the evn collection, evn sammlung, Maria Enzersdorf, 2022
Publications
evn collection. 95–2015 Jubilee, Vienna 2015, p. 328–333