PIÈCE UNIQUE: ELMGREEN & DRAGSET

Elmgreen & Dragset’s Balancing Act (blue), 2024, is the latest work in an ongoing series of unique sculptures featuring a cast vulture together with everyday objects, such as a baby bed or a lifeguard chair, that the artist duo initiated in 2012. The vulture motif has been incorporated in each of their solo exhibitions since, depicted in various materials and a range of settings, including on a tree branch or towering over a child’s crib, high-chair, school desk or wagon. In the present work, it is perched on a gym’s bench press, with the bird of prey turning into a coach.

These unique works are often collectively referred to by the artists as ‘The Critic’, a moniker that refers at once to art world critics as well as one’s own inner critic. More broadly, the vulture, a scavenging bird that feeds on the carcasses of other animals, also prompts questions about the symbolic vultures in contemporary society – who is it that benefits from the misfortune of others?

In relation to Elmgreen & Dragset’s current exhibition Spaces at Amorepacific Museum of Art, this work also alludes to how the health and fitness industry have been playing an increasingly significant role in our current culture, while at the same the physical body no longer seems to hold any real importance in terms of production and value making.