YES TO ALLSylvie Fleury (b. Geneva 1961 lives and works in Geneva) makes art in which
references to the realms of luxury and commodities serve to dismantle the hierarchical
distinctions between art culture design fashion and commerce. She got her start in the art
world almost by chance when in 1990 the artist John Armleder hired her as his assistant and
since then she has presented objects of desire from the domains of fashion and cosmetics as
sculptures and installations. Arrangements on the floor of the exhibition space feature
shopping bags emblazoned with the emblems of popular fashion houses as well as shattered makeup
boxes. Status symbols and fetishes from the realm of consumer goods are displaced into the art
context to call their value in question. As in Duchamp the artist's objects are readymades
quoting Andy Warhol's approach to a critique of mass manufacturing. Neon signs proclaim the
power of the brand and exalt the logo as the icon of global consumerism. Tracing the fine line
between seduction and superficiality art and advertising conception and consumption Fleury's
works may appear to embrace the values and standards of the consumerist society look more
closely though and they articulate a subtle critique of the semblance of beauty.With texts by
Verna Hein and Maria Muhle a conversation between Sylvie Fleury Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen
as well as a preface by Michael Buhrs and Verena Hein.
