Invitation to Jonathan Meese’s ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn’ via re-title
Showing now at Stuart Shave Modern Art in London is Jonathan Meese’s solo show ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn.’ It is comprised of paintings, sculptures, and collages, and centers around a rather unlikely subject: Scarlett Johansson. Giving a tour to Art Review, Meese said, ‘This exhibition is a total homage to metabolismn Scarlett Johansson. There you see the mouth of Scarlett Johansson eating a human strawberry, and that is wonderful. If this mouth says that art will rule the world soon, all politicians have to go home…all politicians have to leave the parliaments so that art can rule the world totally.’
Jonathan Meese at Stuart Shave Modern Art [Modern Art]
Jonathan Meese, Casinoz Babymetabolismn [Art Review]
Jonathan Meese – “CASINOZ BABYMETABOLISMN” (Put DR. NO’S MONEY in your mouth, Baby) [Artnet]
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn’ via Modern Art
The energetic German artist presents a manifesto of sorts with this latest show, that ‘art should rule the world.’ The dictators of the world must, according to Meese, make way for art. And in fact, art neutralizes those very dictators. in collages and on paintings are pictures of Hitler, Iraq War playing cards, dollar bills – all symbols of dictators and politicians. But in art, those symbols lost their power.  Meese juxtaposes images of Hitler and SpongeBob and tells us they are dancing.
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn’ via Modern Art
This current show builds upon Meese’s idea of ‘The Dictatorship of Art,’ something he clearly expressed at his solo show this past summer at Bortolami in New York, ‘Dictatorbaby Mary Poppins’ Cats, Dogs and Eggpies (the Revolutionbaby de Large is back)’. Over the past few years Meese has been developing an iconography in service of this Dictatorship, an iconography that includes Hitler, Stalin and other notorious dictators, as well as musicians and pop icons like British singer Noel Coward and Meese’s proclaimed mother of the Dictatorship of Art, Scarlett Johansson. The show runs from January 15 to February 21, 2009.
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn’ via Modern Art
