Ça va comme ça
This show could have happened ten years ago, in 2015 when Tonus was in the 15th arrondissement.
Despite the shine of the polished pewter, the Lettuce is a little wilted on its plinth into which it could fit. The lettuce was originally an ice cream mold made in the 1950s by Létang fils, located at 108 rue Vieille du Temple from 1891 to 1986, a site that later became Yvon Lambert and is now Zwirner.
The empty cigarette packs in the current Work set attempt to approximate as closely as possible the volume of the plinth of Lettuce. The set here represents 117 hours and 20 minutes of life reserve depleted, equal to 1936 USD.
‘Argent’ in French: ’silver,’ meaning the material, and the color (of pewter, of aluminum, of stainless), also the word for ’money.’
The two Philomène’s that go OH HOHO and so on and so forth are based on Carl Andre’s Philemon, originally monumental, modular, raw, now miniaturized, then fixed and painted. A dozen Philomène’s already exist, which is quite enough, and any future version would be redundant.
They sit on Shelf’s in colors quoting the gray floors and white walls of art galleries whose standardization still keeps going. The shade of gray here is light, up to date, compared to the heavier one of the previous decade.
Going upstairs, Monnaie Tonus (prototype) can be fed coins that remain stuck inside. Paying yields no result.
The Potato’s are also molds. Pewter-plated brass wires cross their hollow insides. O’s crossed by cursive lines.
At the end of the corridor an o on an H, a Pea on a bed.
Potatoes, lettuce, peas: easy vegetables, popular because inexpensive, not at all exotic.
The Bonbons are wrapped in fake 1953 Duchamp’s that say A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST Marcel DUCHAMP. That was for his friend William Copley’s show in Paris. Inside the two lemon candies look like a pair of potatoes.