Catalogue Heavy Metal Parking Lot

The three works by Monika Stricker included in this exhibition could be described as rectified readymades in that they are ‘found’ objects that have been altered by the artist. A car door sourced from a Polo, a bonnet from a VW and another from a Renault. Each has been altered by Stricker in a number of subtle ways through the addition of buttermilk. The addition of this organic film of milk to the surface of the mass produced industrial objects. Stricker first incorporated car parts in her work in 2015. At this time art historian Lilian Haberer wrote the following piece about these works:

Whether industrially manufactured, borrowed parts or things created in a molding process, repetition of completed action and serial reproduction cause the objects themselves to appear as intermediaries, or “mediants” as anthropologist Arjun Appaduraii might describe them: They do not, as he says, exude an aura or theatrical presence; instead they present themselves, lined up in rows, as expanded displays. They are on display. They are not connected to Minimal Art (although the reduced gesture might recall it at first glance), nor do they function as castoff objects or things left to their own devices and other processes, thus sidestepping a mise-en-scène (...). They should rather be understood as an artistic practice that moves toward a moment of action in exhibition, that privileges arranging, exposure and curating, and tries to distance itself from sculptural, installative placement.

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