10. “Elmgreen & Dragset: Trilogy”
It is possible that a passion for crime films and detective series has slightly heightened my interest in the installations of Elmgreen & Dragset, but the talent and potential of the artists is undeniable. Scandinavian artist duo Michael Elmgreen (Denmark, 1961) and Ingar Dragset (Norway, 1969) or Elmgreen & Dragset can be described as excellent combiners of contemporary art and black humour, with their socially critical nature always visible in their installations. It is intriguing to discover the psychologically powerful personas they create as the viewer is introduced to their individual tastes, life views and problems by entering their daily environment in the most direct sense.
Trilogy presents the creative process of three exhibitions of a socially inquiring nature, from idea to execution. The catalogue includes Celebrity – The One and the Many (2010), The Collectors (2009), presented at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions at the 53rd Venice Biennale, as well as The Welfare Show (2005), shown at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Although the volume only offers a small insight into the artists’ work, the reader is given a fantastic opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of the creative process and appreciate the duo’s unlimited imagination anew. Published by Thames & Hudson
Additional reading list
Significant exhibition catalogues:
David Hockney, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Willem de Kooning, MoMa, New York
Gerhard Richter, Tate, London
Surveys of artists’ work:
Tracey Emin, Katharina Grosse, Vhils, Mark Wallinger and many more.
Collections:
David Adjaye: A House for an Art Collector
What's Next? 100 Years of the Contemporary Art Society: Inside Public Collections
Selections of work:
Vitamin P2
Great Works
Interviews-Artists: Recordings 1988-2011
An artistic detective story:
Art Theft, Sandy Nairne
Something different:
Sky Full of Kindness, Rob Ryan
Another Art Book
The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal
Girl in a Green Gown, Carola Hicks
