"Was His" (曾经是他的)
// BLURB //
In almost every divorce case, socialites have two options: part peacefully or destroy the universe. But when million dollar collections are at stake, one might have to save what’s possible. I get the Mercedes, you get the Porsche – it’s easy to settle that, but things get complicated when the house you love has a Monet in it that’s worth more than the property itself, and I like it so much. Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, owner of one of the world’s most valuable art collections with masterpieces of Picasso and Rothko, liked his artwork so much he allegedly accused his wife of theft and had her arrested. Eventually, she left with four billion dollars, half of Dmiry’s fortune.  Swiss entrepreneur Maurice Alain Amon obviously wanted to avoid such outcome and before he filed a divorce he moved his collection to a safe place. Unfortunately, some paintings stayed in Paris and when her wife Tracey went back to empty the safe, she used a blowtorch in the vault and damaged a Richard Prince, an Andy Warhol self-portrait, and Damien Hirst’s Acridine. Although circumstances differ, the moral remains the same: art always has a way of falling victim to those obsessed with money.
STATUS
SOLD. Private Collection, London.
EDITION, MEDIA, SIZE & WEIGHT
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2017
RGB LED display, Chinese papercut (Jian Zhi 剪紙), paper collage, teakwood frame
66.5(W)×47.2(H)×5.5(D) cm // 8.9 kg
TECH SPECS
• SLC SD Card
• 3×MWLPV20-5 (INPUT 100~240VAC@0.55A / OUTPUT 5V@3A)
• (2+1 spare)×RGB P4-64*32-V1.0 (HG2017031610-100)​​​​​​​
CRATE SIZE & WEIGHT
78(W)×59(H)×16(D) cm // 20.2 kg
EXPOSURE
• “Tales of the Girl with the Blue Wig” at island6 Main Space
CREDITS
Tang Dashi 汤大师 & He Dashi 贺大师 (Chinese paper cutting 剪紙) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (performance & production supervisor) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction, animation & technical guidance) • András Gál (documentation & blurb)
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