Capitalism in the Public Realm

Neon text and geometric sculptures by Anne Katrine Senstad on the commodification of art and culture

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The Spectacle is the stage at which the commodity has succeeded in totally colonizing social life. Commodification is not only visible, we no longer see anything else; the world we see is the world of commodity

Guy Debord: The Society of Spectacle, 1967

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SOFT GEOMETRY LIQUID COMMODITY by Anne Katrine Senstad – a site specific neon sculpture and text installation intervention over several locations on the Lower East side in New York in 2015, The exhibition looked at the commodification of art and the resulting displacement of art’s purpose, and simultaneously the rapid gentrification of neighborhoods where low and middle income families are pushed out by speculative economies of homeownership. The exhibition included a series of performances presenting sound, text, and a Fluxus piece by Robert Filliou.

A Fluxus performance by Patrice Lerochereuil – CHAPEAU SOFT GEOMETRY LIQUID COMMODITY by Robert Filliou, 1977. The video work is represented by The Film-makers Cooperative, New York.

A collaborative Sound Art Performance with Ilhan Ersahin and Natalia de Campos: In 2015 I invited acclaimed musician, composer, producer and founder of the legendary Jazz institution and club NUBLU New York + Istanbul, Ilhan Ersahin – and New York based Brazilian Sound and Performance artist Natalia de Campos, to create a live interaction within Soft Geometry Liquid Commodity – the spatiality of located at several spaces on the lower east side in New York. The curatorial idea was to unleash a merging of concept, spatial response through audio-visual transformation, with the artists unique approaches to sound art and their practices, here, focused on improvisation and responsive performance, the two artists created a historic happening in a deep and uniquely New York City experiential performative response to SOFT GEOMETRY LIQUID COMMODITY.

KUZKA in Response to Light, Geometry and Color: An electronic keyboard composition in response to light and color in an enclosed, confined space, by acclaimed Brazilian sound artist, musician and composer KUZKA. To view video documentation and hear the music, visit LINK here

Two neon text based Installation works from Anne Katrine Senstad’s site-specific critical statement intervention, social-economic criticism activism, and commentary on the art world as being an unrestrained place of hyper commodification, corporatized and accelerated market drive. The artworks are placed in a Chinese hardware store on the lower east side in New York, the ongoings of art and commerce, as experienced in the wholesale store or the global stock market, is placed with no other purpose than trade and commerce, void of any other value.

Lighting systems, neon signs and displays are largely present in the Chinatown cityscape. Soft Geometry creates a correspondence of light, shapes, text and color between the different displays along the city block, a cartographic and aesthetic anthropological intervention. LIQUID COMMODITY reflects ideas of trade, business, service industry and fast movement of commodities that we find in the market place and in the neighborhood. Art exists as commodity and currency, illuminating and directing desires for possession and consumerism. With the seduction of colors, neon lights and the art object, commodification and trade is demystified and exposed.