Knives

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Philippe Perrin Knife, 2004
aluminum, paint

 

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Li Hongbo Various, 2014
‘Each piece is delicately cut from the knife leaving a complementary negative space from which it appears to rise. Hongbo says the pieces are meant as a warning, that “human beings will eventually destroy themselves because of their gluttony”.’

 

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Jannis Kounellis Various, 1991, 2002
‘Untitled (Knife and Train) is a wall-mounted work consisting of a portrait-orientated rectangular steel box containing five kitchen knives and two toy train engines. The knives are regularly spaced and arranged horizontally so that the base of each handle, on the right, and the tip of each blade, on the left, touch the edges. The sharp edge of the blade faces outwards, towards the viewer. The top two blades act as shelves for two 00 gauge toy train engines.’

Untitled (Knife and Train), 2002

Untitled (Red fish bowl with knife), 1991

 

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Erika Vogt Knives Please Rise, 2016
‘Vogt has produced a group of large-scale leaning, hanging and freestanding sculptures based on a collection of knife iconography culled from a range of sources and historical periods – Paleolithic, Han Dynasty, Incan, Egyptian Middle Kingdom, Peruvian, 19th century surgical tools, as well as contemporary weaponry.’

 

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Andy Warhol Knives, 1982
acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas

 

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Louise Bourgeois Various, 1949, 2002
‘Once we were sitting together at the table, I took white bread, mixed it with spit, and moulded a figure of my father. When the figure was done I started cutting off the limbs with a knife. I see this as my first sculptural solution.’

Knife Woman, 2002

KNIFE COUPLE, 1949

 

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Claes Oldenburg Various, 1989, 1995
‘This artist constructed a 24-metre long boat in the shape of a pocket knife. It sailed through Venice and was exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum and the Pompidou Centre, among other places.’

Il Corso del Coltello, 1995

Knife Slicing Through Wall, 1989

 

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Thomas Hirschhorn Swiss Army Knife, 1998
‘Made up of fifteen themes or ‘condensation points’, as Hirschhorn calls them, this seemingly chaotic installation works like the traditional Swiss army knife after which it is named: it is a multifunctional tool that can cut, perforate and file, but also repair and mend. Hirschhorn applies this Swiss army knife approach to fifteen chapters from Swiss history and culture (including the army, Nazi gold, luxury watches, globalisation, concrete art and Ferdinand Hodler), sometimes mocking and deconstructing myths, sometimes celebrating misfits like Robert Walser who were never understood by the Swiss system. Using poor materials such as wooden panels, folding tables, red cloth, photocopies, cardboard, plastic and sheets of aluminium, Hirschhorn makes art with a do-it-yourself aesthetic on a grand scale, producing work that is concise, energetic and immediately effective. Here, the Swiss army knife, a global symbol of Swiss success, ends up turning against those who produced it.’

 

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Michał Smandek Knife Work, 2016
‘Observing almost imperceptible processes, making deliberate choices, and understanding the power of the performed gesture constitute the intellectual definition of the scope of the artwork.’

 

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Dhuwarrwarr Marika Makassan Swords and Long Knives, 1945
‘The men woke up and saw the boat. They thought it was the enemy and some Makassan jumped from their boat and swam to the shore to meet the Aboriginal people. They wanted to work with them. They explained to them about trepang and where they could find some trepang. They went and collected to show them. The Makassan showed them what to do, cooked them and dried them out, explained to them it’s good food and they paid the aboriginal people with swords, axes, material and tobacco. They invited the Makassan people to the camp and explained to them who they were and why they came because in their heart they were Yolgnu people. And the Makassan taught the Yolngu their song and traditions and the Yolngu taught the Makassan their culture and law and tradition.’

 

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Theo Triantafyllidis a mountain made to look like a person holding a knife, 2016
‘The work is a playful nod to the tradition of still life paintings as self-contained narratives frozen in time, driven by the symbolism imbued to everyday objects. It is governed by the rules of intelligent artificial life and constantly reminded of its imminent destruction.’

 

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Federico Molinaro Harakiri Sculpture, 2012
Metal on iron

 

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‘The alleged vandal who travelled almost 10,000 miles to slash a £2.16million ($3 million) piece of art at a US gallery has been revealed as the son of the painting’s owner. Officials in Colorado have charged Nicholas Morley, 40, with ‘felony criminal mischief’ after the untitled Christopher Wool painting belonging to father Harold, 74, was cut twice. A man was caught on camera entering the Opera Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, wearing sunglasses and a cap on May 1, 2017, and was seen damaging the piece with a razor before fleeing the scene. A warrant for Morley’s arrest has now been issued by a district court judge in the area following an 11-month investigation.’

 

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S.A.M. Frozen Head Big Knife Across Face, 2000
‘S.A.M. is musician (bass player for the band DOVER). His style comes from punk, but not forgetting craft virtuosity. His work seems to be there since the first day of our exixtence, far away from contemporary art, but in a strange way submerged in it.’

 

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Object Rights Untitled, 2020
‘Object Rights is a pseudonym for designer/artist duo Deger Cengiz and Jiwon Shin.’

 

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Erin Shirreff Knife, 2008
black-and-white inkjet print

 

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Graciela Sacco Untitled (Admissible Tension), 1996/2011
Light installation, print on mirror, knife and light

 

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Ann Carrington Untitled, 2023
‘British artist Ann Carrington turns discarded eating utensils knives, spoons, and forks) into bouquets that never fade.’

 

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Ngugi Waweru Kahiū Kogi Gatemaga O Mwene (A sharp knife only cuts its owner), 2022
‘“Just as a knife is eroded as it is sharpened repeatedly so that it can perform its functions better, so are we made less and less human by the actions we take to adopt and survive within our present society,” Ngugi says.’

 

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Rebecca Horn Between the Knives the Emptiness, 2014
3 knives, steel construction, electronic device, motor, brush, brass

 

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Samara Golden The Flat Side of The Knife, 2014
‘Just as looking into The Flat Side of the Knife induces vertigo, so too a description of the installation slips by, down, away. Understanding flits in and out. Golden has created a complex world of suspension, reflection, and duplication through opposition and duality. Even the title, The Flat Side of the Knife, suggests how crucial duality is to Golden’s project. What makes the knife the knife is the blade: the ability to cut, to incise. The sharp edge is the essence of the tool, the knife-iest. The other component of the knife is what Golden terms the “flat side,” smooth, non-violent. Not quite opposite the blade, these two sides slope down to meet. At their juncture, the edge.’

See it here

 

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Unknown Eight Surgeon’s tools, 16th century
‘Mother-of-pearl-inlaid and parcel-gilt etched steel comprising two saws, a hammer, two curved, notched knives, a needle, a scalpel, and a hinged blade, all now within later glazed box frame.’

 

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JASTUDIO360 A man eats razor blades in Rwanda, 2013
‘You can actually digest a razor blade. The acid in your tummy is strong.’

 

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Tayeba Begum Lipi Various, 2007 – 2016
‘Bangladeshi artist Tayeba Begum Lipi recreates memory-laden objects by connecting thousands of razor blades, transforming the sharp metal tools into household comfort items.’

 

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Ron Ulicny Murder Ballad, 2011
knives, dartboard

 

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Gina Payne In Sentimental, 1973
‘Payne takes a bunch of roses in her hand and hurts herself with their spines. The blood dripping on the bouquet turns the roses from white to red. At that point, the artist cuts herself with a razor blade.’

 

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Christophe Delbeecke Split Second (black), 2018
Mirror polished resin with black pearl finish, knife

 

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Robert Lazzarini Knives, 2008
‘Robert Lazzarini’s objects are invalids. They might have suffered some complex damage or better: a transformation whose origins remain obscure, with its traces remaining evident. What is presented to the viewer are recognizable weapons; in short, remnants of everyday life which are easily identifiable. At the same time, the objects seem to be like three-dimensional shadows of their former existence, distorted and warped. They equally challenge the boundaries of materiality and perception, appearing intrinsically changed, but not merely deformed.’

 

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Valérie Blass Tentation Medievale, 2010
styrofoam, paint, knife

 

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Barnett Newman Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue III, 1967
‘The most famous attack on one of Barnett Newman’s paintings occurred in 1986 when a man named Gerard Jan van Bladerin walked into the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and willfully damaged Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue III with a box cutter. Van Bladerin created a series of long slashes on the painting which, when added together, were a total of fifty feet long. He was sentenced to five months in prison for the attack, which he served, though he never expressed remorse for destroying the painting.’

 

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Allday Goods Forged Santoku Knife, 2021
‘Allday Goods is a British knife company taking plastic and metal waste destined for landfill and repurposing it into kitchen products that last for life. The Forged Santoku Knife is made entirely of materials draw from three discarded cassette tapes.’

 

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Alfred Hitchcock The 39 Steps, 1935
‘She slumps over his bed, revealing that she has been stabbed to death with a kitchen knife in her back – the knife he used to cut a fresh loaf of bread for her last meal.’

 

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Andy Hazell Bored Boy stabbing peas, 2022
painted tinplate automata

 

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Kris Martin Mandi XV, 2007
‘This perfectly functional sword is too large for a man. Who is it for?’

 

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Vincent Scheers Wasp and bee on knife, 2022
Wasp, bee, knife, metal

 

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Bill McRight Shanks, 2010
‘I have a hard time pinpointing when I really started making weapons. As a kid, I remember trying to make bows and arrows, slingshots, being so excited when I got my first pocket knife and immediately cutting my fingers trying to sharpen sticks. Later, I got super psyched reading about soccer hooligans making weapons to sneak into matches. I think the thing that got me really thinking about shanks really seriously was teaching an art camp for inner city kids and having a kid ask me for duct tape so “I can fix my shank.”’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Oh, great, it’s a fantastic novel. Half a day is a pretty decent start, so good news. There’s something going around here too. Either I got a very mild version of it with my recent head cold, or I’m due, or I’m immune, as I strangely often seem to be with things that are going around. Here’s to you getting up and at ’em pronto, pal. ** Misanthrope, Someone I know had crabs just few months ago, so it’s still out there looking for pubes. I like eating at Denny’s when I’m in LA. I don’t know if you have those where you are. Formerly Denny’s Coffee Shop. Their grilled cheese sandwiches are solid. From what I can tell, the cheapest American cigarettes here are Winston’s. Pizza Hut used to have, and maybe still has, this pizza where they bake cheese into the crust, and you can break off pieces of the crust and eat them as accompaniments, and that was pretty attractive. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I don’t really know what the attraction is to staying in a fancy hotel, but it’s there, it’s in my DNA or something. Zac and I stayed at this super expensive hotel/resort in the Arizona desert once that had free hot air balloon rides for the guests. That made it kind of worth it. Yes, right indeed, about the SCAB video game. Shall we crowd fund it into reality? Oh, hm, I remember at the time thinking it might be nice to have sex with Legolas from the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, but not with Orlando Bloom himself, so I’m not sure how that would have worked. Who would you have love co-star erotically with you? Love whipping out his switchblade and peeling you a grape, G. ** Mark, I hereby bequeath you the name Wussy Fists for the next band you play bass or drums or guitar or keyboards or sing for. I am curious to read McGough’s book, I will admit. I can’t look at the Oscar Wilde Temple because the NYT won’t let me in, but I’ll find it elsewhere. No, I haven’t received the zines. Or hopefully not yet. Wow, I hope I get them. I have been known to listen to Pepperland Spicerack, in fact. With great pleasure. Hope all’s sublime with you. ** Barkley, Hey, Barkley! Late’s ok, no problem, because there you are. I’m sure my visual art interest comes out in the filmmaking, and Zac’s too since we’re both diehard visual art chasers. And in my fiction too. Visual art is a serious influencer. Ron Mueck’s stuff is totally vapid. Even the big crouching boy’s good effect is an accident, I think. People love Anselm Kiefer and think he’s a genius and so on, but I just think it’s pompous macho schticky bullshit. Cy Twombly is another one. People hear his name and fall to their knees in prayer, but I think he’s just an upper class overly precious doodling dilettante. But anyway … Asia Argento knowingly perpetuating the JT Leroy lie has always put her on my shit list. The last time I took LSD was at the end of a month of taking LSD every day, and I had an extreme mental, psychotic breakdown for about 10 hours, and that was memorable. That said, I still think of LSD with great fondness and would definitely not be the person I am today had LSD not taught me a million things. No, I wouldn’t do it again. I know I would get completely fixated on how close I am in years to my death, and I would completely freak out. What about you and LSD? Any interesting experiences or ideas? I hope you too had a great double holiday(s). What’s on you agenda? So great to see you! ** T, Hey! She’s really good. And, yes, Guyotat. I’d start wth ‘Eden Eden Eden’ first. Although if you really want Algeria in the work, maybe ‘Tomb …’. Yes, I’ll go with you to see Ikeda. Shall we get tickets? And don’t forget the galette. Zac just told me yesterday there are some amazing looking ones this year. Let’s all gobble together. xo, me. ** Darby 🐧, No, pure Google translate. I could rattle off a little Dutch, but it would take some serious concentration to remember much. I saw my friend Alex yesterday, who’s ftm trans, and he has the same issues with his father, although the father has no legal power over him. I just cannot understand where that fear comes from. It makes no sense at all. It’s weird how people can become total scaredy cat control freaks about gender and race and everything else without even thinking about it. If I was a hypnotist, I’d fly over there and fix your mom. Somehow her grip over you will lessen. Stupidity and fascism have a short shelf life. But I don’t know they end. They just always crash and burn. Which doesn’t help you now. Ugh. I’m okay, I’m fine. I think I only eat seaweed when I eat sushi. God, I want sushi. Paris is great, but it’s so difficult to find a sushi place here that is, one, good and, two, has vegan sushi. I only know one. And it’s so tiny that only four people can eat there at the same time. And it’s really popular. No, I don’t have a record player, Or not here in Paris. In LA, yes. I wish I did. I have lots of vinyl records I’ve never even taken out of the plastic. Do you (have a record player)? I hope you made it to the bookstore and saw your pals and everything. Did you? Goedenavond heer. xoxo. ** Okay. Weaponry. See you tomorrow.