Kim Jong Phil
Phillip Toledano (England)
15 – 26 February 2012
10am – 10pm
ION Art Gallery, Level 4, ION Orchard
Admission is free
(World Premiere / Co-presented with ION Orchard)
“I think a great deal about what it means to be an artist.
“I reflect on the elaborate psychological mechanisms required to pursue something so elusive, so ambiguous.
“I often wonder: ‘Am I talking to myself?’
“I don’t make work for other people, but as an artist, I need to be in dialogue with the world that exists beyond my overpopulated cranium.
“I’ve concluded that to be effective-to be functional-I must guzzle an eye-popping cocktail of delusion and narcissism.
“It occurred to me that being an artist is a great deal like being a dictator.
“Just like a dictator, I must live in a closed loop of self-delusion. A place where my words and ideas always ring true.
“A gilded daydream of grandiosity. There can be no room for doubt. I must be convinced that I have something vital to say.
“I must believe that the world is waiting in keen anticipation to hear my message.
“For my palette, I’ve copied pre-existing dictatorial art. Paintings from North Korea, statues of assorted dictators (Kim Il Sung, Laurent Kabilla, and Saddam Hussein). I had these works re-created in China, and each instance, I’ve replaced the great leaders with myself.”
- Phillip Toledano
Relationship to Art & Faith
Kim Jong Phil is about self delusion, which is of course a form of faith in the intangible.
Photo credits: Phillip Toledano