The publication concentrates on a new series of works. Hence in the installation "Ten High" (2007) numerous silver
shop display dummies converge on a mirror smooth platform holding in
their hands objects such as signs, bearing anti-war slogans like "No
War in Iran" or the notorious recession signal "Going Out of
Business/Sale," a whisky bottle or a bible and other classical American
"icons." Meckseper's object arrangements recall the window displays of
department stores and expensive boutiques, re-contextualising the
exhibited objects: the shibboleths are ascribed a new
significance—from now on a consumerist lifestyle posture.
In her photography, videos, and installations Josephine Meckseper
(born Lilienthal, 1964, lives and works in New York) engages with the
interaction between politics and
glamour. Thus, in her works, images of
political activism—whether photographs of demonstrations or
newspaper cuttings—are set against sparkling consumer goods and
advertising motifs, evoking a paradoxical effect. On the one hand, the
pop-political vocabulary of forms appears absurd in its opposing
ideological effect; on the other, the artist discloses references by
interpolating them seamlessly in a decorative and apparently elegant
display. Meckseper has pursued the capitalist-critique approach of
recent years, with subject areas agitating around the war in Iraq and the
oil industry, with all their inherent economic and socio-political
implications, in particular those concerning the automobile industry.
