SALLY CURCIO

The Touch of Midas, 2007

Assorted objects and latex paint, Dimensions variable

 

The myth of the greedy Phrygian King Midas begins when Dionysus grants him, his wish of turning anything he touches into gold. Midas was granted this wish due to his hospitality to the lost schoolmaster and foster father of Dionysus. While Midas is initially delighted with his powers to turn anything into gold, he soon finds he cannot eat (given his food turns into gold as he touches it). He then embraces his daughter who also turns into gold. Thus, all that was elemental to living became inaccessible to him given his power. Midas cries to Dionysus to take back the power, which Dionysus does. Midas then becomes a follower of Pan, or nature, and moves to the country to live naturally. Branding has the power of Midas. It transubstantiates whatever it touches into increased market value. In this work, entitled “The Touch of Midas,” the objects, which are found objects obtained in tag sales and the Salvation Army Thrift shop, are transformed by simply being painted a “Tiffany blue” and arrayed as a collection. They appear valuable and beautiful. One could actually imagine Tiffany offering such an array of objects for sale. Though beautiful, these objects appear strangely frozen, mute, and somehow inaccessible; not unlike those touched by King Midas. This power to transubstantiate the low and worthless, to the high and valuable, is a form of magic. Consumers willingly trade their wealth to fortify their identity by association with such objects. This magic summons our primitive longing for a

fetish to feel empowered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SALLY CURCIO

Fashion Bows to Nature; Nature Bows to Fashion, 2007

Diorama, wood, fake moss, bird’s nest and acrylic paint, 8 x 10 x 6 inches

 

This diorama addresses the blurred boundary between nature and culture. Some would argue that the

robin’s egg blue color is now more associated with Tiffany and Company than its natural source. As

culture borrows from nature, the diorama reverses the process in this simulated mutation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SALLY CURCIO

Brandscendence, 2007

Acrylic paint on seven panels.

10 x10 inches (each) – total size 88 x 10 inches

 

This work successively deconstructs the Burberry fashion brand into nothingness. The seven-step

process, analogous to the seven chakras of the Hindu system of esoteric anatomy, offers questions

about whence derives the magic of the brand, the religious devotions of adherents to brands, and

finally: when is the brand’s magic undone? The binary of high and low is again addressed with the

“earthy” and immanent brand being emanated from an unspeakable transcendent nothingness. The

work is reminiscent of the abstract art of Piet Mondrian and his non-representational pieces inspired by

the theosophists who believed in a spiritual knowledge superior to empirical knowledge.