09 Oct 2008

BUTCHER'S presents Marcos Chaves

Laughing Mask by Marcos Chaves

Butcher's is proud to present Marcos Chaves's first exhibition in England with the presentation of his video Laughing Mask (2005).

Laughing Mask shows a disembodied head floating in the middle of a black screen. A latex carnival mask the artist bought in Rio de Janeiro covers the face from just below the eyes. It is dominated by a grotesquely over-sized mouth, fixed in a horrifying smile, which reveals two banks of yellow teeth. Completely uniform in size and distribution, they resemble an open zip or the cogs of an industrial machine. The uncanny ivories grow directly out of the lips, whose blood red hue is in stark contrast to the powder white pallor of the mask, giving it the character of a Hogarthian harlot or spectacular ethnographic artefact.

Laughing Mask is part of a series of three self-portrait mask videos by Chaves. Each questions the boundaries between the 'reality' of the artist as person / persona and the 'fiction' of the artwork, keeping both perceptions in play simultaneously. As with the most unnerving comedy, there is no laughter soundtrack – viewers are left to decide for themselves in which of the ambiguities to place their trust.

At Butcher's artwork is visible from the street 24 hours a day. Multiple audiences interact with the same space while viewing Laughing Mask, a work that oscillates between entertaining and disturbing. Humour is often a relief from anxiety and in this way Laughing Mask acts as a release valve for the daily pressures we experience while walking in an urban environment. During the day, when the atmosphere in this part of Camden is primarily residential, the work may suggest a perverse take on family entertainment, while after dark it conjures the inebriated excesses of Camden's nightlife. With the exhibition period spanning the alarming conjunction of Halloween in October and the US Presidential elections in November, Laughing Mask reveals that 'Humour,' as Chaves remarks, 'has a political attitude.'

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Marcos Chaves was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1961 and began his practice in the early 1980s. His work is characterized by the use of diverse media and openly moves between the production of objects, photographs, videos, drawings, words and sounds. Chaves has participated in individual and group exhibitions in Brazil and internationally such as Manifesta 7; the 4th Biennial of Havana; the 25th International Biennial of Sao Paulo; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; NKB, Berlin; and Espace Topografie de l'Art, Paris. He is represented by Nara Roesler Gallery, Sao Paulo.
For more information see: www.marcoschaves.net