By Fran T. Pel -- 1/12/24
This fall, the Cosmopolitan Museum of the Contemporary features a collection from the much-beloved Cherique Morle Antal, whose musings (and perversions) at the intersections of modern biology and sociology remain some of the most revolutionary in the blooming art scene of our eastern coast (a scene I have critiqued, at length, in my recent review of Babulrade’s retrospective—a travesty).
Hallmarks of this collection of Antal’s work include Kiasmos: the last breath of a fruit fly, a piece originally begun in 2018 that features 680 pounds of rotting fruit—selected from the finest farms in the world and averaging out to $200 worth of raw produce per half-pound—stuffed into trash bags and, subsequently, into trash bins placed nondescriptly throughout the museum. Participate in this exhibit by adding your own waste to the piece, noting that each atom of organic matter is enough sustenance for a fruit fly’s entire being.
See also Poo Poo Pee Pee Thunder, Called By Name, a collection of gossamer-textured triptychs abstractly depicting the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, in which Putsch meets kitsch through the intermodal use of textile. Do not confuse this with Reservation, a performance piece in the easternmost room which features the artist herself defecating and urinating at irregular intervals throughout the day. An important note for museumgoers who, like myself, find themselves downing a museum cafe espresso during their visits: this room was once the only publicly-accessible bathroom on the second floor—now the nearest bathroom is on the third floor, western wing.
The centerfold of this collection, however, is undoubtedly Placentorism, a collection of flowers whose petals have been painstakingly sewn together by volunteer Bangladeshi laborers over the course of seven years (a statement on capitalism) to form broad fabrics shaped like the placentas of 36 women randomly selected from New York’s Bushwick borough. Note, most alluringly, the surrounding room’s injection of blood-scent and the discordant audio of Yoko Ono delivering her second Lennon child, Sean, as reproduced on wax cylinder.
I find Placentorism to be—in its use of flowers—the most emblematic of the show, which on the whole achieves a fragrance and diversity that retains symbiosis, each constituent part pointing to themes of femininity, the corporeal, and the ethereal, to elevate our sense of ‘body’ and ‘gender’ to higher sensibilities than I’ve seen from any artist her age (93). I look forward to seeing what Antal produces as her career continues.
-FP