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Christopher Frederick Page 1 |
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Christopher Frederick polishes his shoes, adjusts his tie, grabs his chrome-plated suitcase, and heads out the door en route to Chelsea for his weekly gallery tour. Armed with a briefcase carefully designed to contain his recent artwork, he leaves Brooklyn and ventures out into the 'art world.'
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Meticulously housed in the suitcase is Frederick’s recent body of work entitled ‘Corporate Casual.’ Taken from his “other“ life as an employee of a major monetary institution, it consists of surprisingly intimate photographs of the corporate environment made into paperweights. Also represented are various ephemera from Frederick’s own corporation, a nameless entity perhaps best illustrated by its faceless nametags and engraved pens featuring his attractive, familiar, yet ultimately meaningless logo. A quick glance at these elements (both the performance and the series) might tempt one to simplify the project as a straightforward critique on the commodification of art or an easy jab at the lack of identity in the corporate world. These elements are no doubt present but upon closer inspection this project becomes more compelling; Frederick’s undertakings are personal acts of subversion awkwardly positioned between the two worlds that he is dependant upon. This project is a complex blend of wish-fulfillment and self-denial, role playing and deceit; it is a risky endeavor and an insightful look into the relationship of art and business.
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No one knows exactly how this experiment will play out. It is the perhaps the tension and precariousness of the Frederick’s placement in this performance that is most intriguing. Through the use and misuse of symbols of power, he is giving himself a chance to change his position in the life he desires.
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What remains to be seen is whether gaining proximity to the thing he wants most, actually gets him any closer to achieving it. In this big-city fable, when the lamb in wolves’ clothing finally reveals himself, it is not necessarily happily ever after. It is the magnitude of that risk and the complexities of its implications that drive this project further and keep our interest week after week.EXTRACT FROM ' Performing the Corporate' by CINDY MOORE, www.ducts.org
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