Old People's Home Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Jul 12 2008

Location: 

Hong Kong, London, Paris

These thirteen life-like sculptures resemble familiar politicians, admirals, generals, bishops, and dictators. Portrayed as frail seniors, they sit dozing off and drooling in electric wheelchairs. They roll on a slow collision course, crashing into each other like bumper cars. The artists seem to offer a grotesque parody of the world order, determined by only a small group of increasingly senseless leaders, and our continuous cycle of conflict, a parody of a session of the United Nations Security Council. They ruthlessly attack the inaction, or even what they judge to be the senility of world leaders.
This artwork was part of a group exhibition titled "Unmoved" in 2008. The figures were removed from their wheelchairs in the third week of the show, and the installation was renamed Absent.

External sources: 

https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/collection/objects/old-peoples-home-2012949/
https://lesoeuvres.pinaultcollection.com/en/artwork/old-peoples-home
https://www.artforum.com/events/unmoved-185980/
Posted by ChrisC on Mar 27 2024

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Activates (people)Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.
Shifts (culture)Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear long-term goal. Long-term goals tend to be things like: end racism; end homophobia; make the sun stand still in the sky. A campaign with a long-term goal also needs to have some kind of theory of change.
This artwork seems to aim at critiquing the world order and people in positions of power in their ability/inability to take action on issues. As such, there is not a tangible short term goal, but more so a questioning of the social/governing structures and a suggestion that change must take place.

Notes

In terms of affectivness, this work amplifies its message through the use of dark humor, satire, and shock value. The medium being life size silicone hyperrealistic sculpture also emphasize these aspects. The affect most likely would have been less impactful had the medium/format been different (such as on a smaller scale, or a still painting). These aspects, as well as the removal of the figures when retitled "Absent", one can assume, furthers the affective power of the work, and even more so for those who experienced the exhibition both as "Old People's Home" and as "Absent". However, when it comes to effectiveness, it seems to have been effective in reaching/resonating with audiences in different contexts, raising awareness, and encouraging social critique. However, if we are to measure effectiveness in line with reaching the goal that the work suggests, then it can be considered ineffective, as the work alone is incapable of facilitating the global overhaul of the world order as it suggests.