©SABOT 2023
Destiny’s Child: 2005/2012 JPG (rhizomatic painting) archival print on canvas mounted on MDF 36,2 x 27,6 cm All rhizomatic paintings belong to the idea of a work of art that exists first and foremost as a JPG file and can be realized through many ways: printed on a mug, on a t-shirt, on a postcard. This idea is connected to how images from the history of art are used as gadgets for art tourists in museum gift shops, which is the degenerated result of visual art meeting a massive audience and the rules of entertainment rather than culture. The technique, which reminds pointillism as well as Roy Lichtenstein’s signature works, but also Manga comics, are kept secret, and the original work from which this JPG comes is never exhibited. In this case, Piero della Francesca’s Virgin with Child Giving His Blessing and Two Angels, also known as The Senigallia Madonna, a 61 x 53.5 cm tempera on wood panel from 1470, part of the collection of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino, Italy, becomes a portrait of R&B band Destiny’s Child. There are different connections, such as the name of the band – here, the destiny’s child, Jesus, holds a Grammy Award and a microphone – and the fact that the band reached great success with the soundtrack of the blockbuster movie “Charlie’s Angels.”