Bedroom ensemble II, 1998

Sylvie Fleury’s (b. 1961, Geneva) installation consists of household furnishings: a bed, two nightstands topped with lamps, a vanity table with mirror, and a seat. Every piece of furniture in the bedroom is covered with fake fur, as are the two lamps. The fabric, which evokes an artificial softness, is common in Fleury’s work. She uses it especially when quoting from art history. For example, she has made multiple monochrome “paintings” and pastiches of Mondrian’s work that incorporate fake fur. Her versions of iconic works defuse the radical quality of the originals, mock their Modernist ambitions, and contradict Greenberg’s assertion that the avant-garde and kitsch are incompatible. Fleury’s Bedroom Ensemble II also pays homage to an artist who similarly raised the pedestrianism of trivial objects to the level of monumental sculpture. In 1963, Claes Oldenburg recreated bedrooms under this same title, distorting their perspectives to enhance the effect of depth and create a disconnection with reality. With her own vocabulary of textures and colors, Fleury pushes Oldenburg’s proposition to its limits.