Go to content area

 

Canale youtube Canale Facebook

 

CERTIFIED ORIGINAL PLEXUS ARTWORKS AT THE ARCHIVES IN ROME
Plexus 23s Cambpbolls Soup Cans Limited Editions by Sandro Dernini, 1988, New York

BACKGROUND

DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO EAT ANDY WARHOL IF YOU  EAT A CAMPBELL'S SOUP CAN?

Sandro Dernini, as part of his Ph.D. Program at the New York University Art and Art Education Department., on February 18, 1987, in New York, at Patrizia Anichini Gallery,  held a performance staged as  an inquiry for the course E.90.2605“ Phenomenology and the Arts,” conducted by prof. David W. Ecker.  The performance was inspired by the upcoming  symposium on "The Dematerialization of Art", organized on 24-26 February by the New York University International Center for Advanced Studies in Art (ICASA)in which Sandro Dernini as graduate assistant was part of the organization.

 

Willoughby Sharp,  Joan Waltmath, Donald Sheridan, Peter Grass, Helen Valentin, Bernd Naber, Franco Ciarlo, Lynne Kanter, Souyun Yi, Carol Drury, Amy Paskin, Christian Chiansa, Patrizia Anichini, were invited by Sandro Dernini to eat a Campbell soup can.

Then, they were invited to answer to a written questionary made by Sandro as part of his phenomenological inquiry: 

Do you think it is possible that you have eaten Andy Warhol when before you have eaten that Campbell soup two minutes ago?

Suspend your belief before to answer to these questions: Answer- yes or nor?

What you mean?

How do you know?

How was the taste?

Is it true or not?

Who was the subject?

Who was the object?

Description of the experience



As napkins near plates, brochures of the Dematerialization of Art  Symposium where displaced on the table,  in order to be read during the digestion. 

 

From the replies to the questionnaires,  it came out that majority of participants believed that they have “aten” Andy Warhol during their ritual performance.  Few days after Andy Warhol died on 22 February 1987. 

The ICASA Dematerialization of Art symposium opened on 24 February , featuring as panelists: Jean Baudrillard, Donald Kuspit, Nam June Paik, Vito Acconci, Judy Barry, Dennis Oppenheim, Billy Kluver, Nancy Holt, Paul Taylor, Bruce Breland, George Chaikin, Flor Bex, Rene Berger, Eika Billeter, Alan Bowness, Julie Lawson and Hervè Fischer. 

Nam June Paik, by answering to a question from the audience, posed by Lenny Horowitz and Stephen Di Lauro as Plexus participants, about the feasibility that Andy Warhol was eaten during that performance conducted by Sandro Dernini, replied that it was possible that Warhol has been dematerialized  in the intentional act of the artists of eating his commodity art symbol.

 

On 20 February 1988, on the anniversary of the 1987 Andy Warhol's Dematerialition performance, Sandro Dernini, organized the  event “A Plexus Redefinition of an Andy Warhol Campbell Soup Can”, at CUANDO Community Civic Cultural Center, in 9 Second Avenue, New York. 

 

VIDEO LINK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREIb4rRlrs&list=PLphpm68Zwk90RW3fml1DNKRrnAN6ZngA3&index=20&t=339s

 

This performance was inspired to Sandro by the second ICASA symposium on "The Redefinition of Art in the Collision of Cultures in the Post-Modern World", organized in the same period at New York University, in which he  as a graduate assistant to the director Angiola Churchill was still collaborating. 

 

 In New York, on September 23, 1988,  Sandro Dernini  presented  his limited edition of 100 labels of  Plexus 23s Campboll Soup Can, that he conceived for his 1987 Andy Warhol’s dematerialization.  The printing  in serigraphy of the 100 labells  he commissioned to Maggie Reilly of the Ram Studio and were designed by Robert Kern.

    

Serigraphed labels in paper, 9 cm x 21 cm 

Plexus Campboll’s Soup Cans, a limited edition 100/100

Conceptual artwork by Sandro Dernini, 1988

 

Intentionally, at the center of the red and white Campbell Soup Can label, there was apported a little fine difference, instead of Campbell’s, it was written with the same character “Campboll’s.”   Between the red and white stripes, there was a circular black frame within the white image of the head of Andy Warhol, on top of which, in the red stripe,  was written “Dematerialized,” and under of which, in the white one, it was written “Andy Warhol.”  At the center in the bottom,  it was written “PLEXUS.” 

On the top left side, there was a rectangular white frame with written “Ingredients:  History of Modern Art, Volume One, FoodArt International.”Symmetrically at the other top right side, there was a rectangular white frame with written  “Direction: Eating Art.” 

 Limited edition 100/100,  alluminium Cans 7 cm x 10  cm. 1988 - 2021

 

 

Sandro's performance was part  of his paper " Art Logic versus rational inquiry: Its implication in "Eating Art" by digesting Art History"  that he was preparing for  the NYU PhD course on Aesthetic Inquiry E10.2137 by prof. David W. Ecker. 


                                             

 

 

 

266_made_in_the_sixties.jpg
266_annuncio_performance_anichini_gallery_1987.jpg
266_annuncio_2_performance_anichini_gallery_1987.jpg
266_1987_anichini_questionary_warhol_and_dracula.jpg
266_1987_warhol_as_an_intentional_food.jpg
266_1987_icasa_dematerialition_of_art.jpg
266_1987_dematerialization_of_art_brochure.jpg
266_immagine_859.jpg
266_figure2_on_the_table.jpg
266_figure1_on_the_table.jpg
266_immagine_855.jpg
266_figure_3_on_the_wall.jpg
266_opener.jpg
266_soup_can_1.jpg
266_soup_can_2.jpg
266_immagine_854.jpg
266_patrizia_in_cucina.jpg
266_immagine_861.jpg
266_sandro_and_.jpg
266_helen_and_peter.jpg
266_franco_ciarlo_eating.jpg
266_bernd_naber_eating_and_reading.jpg
266_helen_bernd_e_peter_eating.jpg
266_immagine_858.jpg
266_peter_grass_reading_and_helen_valentin.jpg
266_helen_valentin.jpg
266_carol_drury_writing.jpg
266_peter_fend_eating_and_writing.jpg
266_immagine_856.jpg
266_immagine_857.jpg
266_immagine_144.jpg
266_willoughby_eating.jpg
266_helen_and_sandro.jpg
266_sandro_ritual.jpg
266_sandro_e_helen.jpg
266_sandro_e_franco.jpg
266_lynne_sandro_franco.jpg
266_donald_and_bernd.jpg
266_patrizia_anichini_gallery2.jpg
266_report_pag_ultima.jpg
266_report_pag_penultima.jpg
266_report_pag_3.jpg
266_report_pag_3.jpg
266_report_pag2.jpg
266_report_pag1.jpg
266_immagine_1375.jpg