SUPERSTAR
Iron oxide, oil, enamel on canvas
Range: 275cm square through every integer to 101cm square.
Total number of artworks: 175
Michael Croft 2015
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SUPERSTAR is intended to be a simulacrum as defined by Baudrillard, a copy with no original, a representation of an object, a semiotic sign, a symbol. It is superficially defined as being a work of art by its crafted method of production, the adhesion of base materials onto canvas to create an illusion of order and/or beauty, and by its pre perceived homeworld – the wall. The geometry and media employed are designed to provoke Suprematist 'primacy of pure feeling' (Malevich).
The rules of Contemporary Art permit me to describe SUPERSTAR as hyperreal, that is, the intent is to create a fictional work of art, a simulation of what could be art. It obviously exists and has real layers of interpretative possibilities, but it is 'impossibly' fictional in the sense of Michael Craig-Martin's 'An Oak Tree' – I am able to assert the parameters and conditions of its existence. It is a reflection of and simultaneously part of Debord's 'Society of Spectacles'.
On an objective level, SUPERSTAR is a simple examination of human celebrity, commodity celebrity and cultural (e.g. art work) celebrity. Decadence and the paucity of what's on offer is announced by the rusty Kwik-Sale graphic set on bright white glossy new washing-machine paint; rust symbolizes inevitable deterioration, a Romantic contemplation of mortality, industrial / economic / cultural ruin and decay; consumer choice is indicated by replications of the motif and process.
The Suprematist pursuit in this work for architectural harmony, (elimination of discord), has found perfection in this geometric form: 32 points symmetrically arranged, the ratio between the inner and outer circles' radii to be 0.8971675863… resulting in 90 degree external angles between each point of the star.
© Michael Croft