Christian Jankowski's Targets

August 30 - December 8, 2002

Even if you missed the Whitney Biennial in New York this spring, it is not too late to see the work of one of its celebrated artists. The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is pleased to present the art of Berlin-based Christian Jankowski in his first museum show in the Midwest. Christian Jankowski's Targets features two video installations, The Holy Artwork (2001) and Point of Sale (2002), and a series of thirty-four photographs, Shame Box (1992).

Jankowski created the works on display by collaborating with individuals and groups who are not normally associated with the production of art. The Holy Artwork is Jankowski's highly praised video from this year's Whitney Biennial. The work is a result of Jankowski's residency at ArtPace, a foundation for contemporary art in San Antonio, Texas. Jankowski joined forces with Pastor Peter Spencer, a local televangelist at the Harvest Fellowship Church, and created a video that poses the question "what makes an artwork holy?" Filmed like a religious broadcast, the video consists of a spirited sermon with Pastor Spencer musing on the nature of art and contemporary religion.

The most recent work in Targets is the video installation Point of Sale. In it Jankowski explores contemporary business and marketing strategies through the juxtaposition of dialogues with a New York gallery owner and a specialty electronics dealer, both of whom respond to questions posed by a management consultant regarding their businesses. As the scene unfolds, it becomes apparent that Jankowski has switched their responses: the gallerist answers as the salesman and salesman answers as the gallerist. The result of this interplay is a clever and humorous video triptych that blurs the boundaries between the art of business and the business of art.

Targets also includes a series of early photographs titled Shame Box. Thirty-four black and white images portray passers-by on a street in Hamburg, Germany. In each image an individual is seen on display in a store window, holding up a sign with their response to the question, "What are you ashamed of?"

This exhibition is part of the Museum's Contemporary Projects series.