Untitled

This untitled sculpture belongs to a group of works that formed part of a landmark installation by Genzken at the Vienna Secession in 2006. There, a number of armchairs, deckchairs, wheelchairs, and walkers, variously festooned with materials and objects, were placed amid collaged panels made of disparate reflective surfaces and brightly colored beach umbrellas to create a bizarre but oddly alluring scene. Referencing a long history of artists working in assemblage, Genzken combined a preponderance of new, inexpensive items in a self-implicating critique of hyper-consumerism. The sofa in Untitled is engulfed, literally and figuratively, with layers of materials that cumulatively imply the aftermath of excess or social disaster. Indeed, made during the catastrophic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the abandoned, seemingly vandalized sofa suggests a war-ravaged scene. The pervading sense of wretchedness is at moments undercut by the banality and humor of certain constituent elements like a fish toy and other tchotchkes trapped underneath the layers, but these only heighten the instability by which this memorial to and remnant of consumerist frenzy haunts our consciousness.