Sherrie Levine
b. 1947, United States
Dada, 2008
Cast bronze
99.06 x 177.8 x 30.48 cm
Dada features a hobby-horse cast in bronze as Sherrie Levine refers back to the roots of appropriation art, where her practice thrives within. The act of appropriation has its roots in the Dada movement: Marcel Duchamp is well-known for introducing the concept of the readymade, an already made object that becomes “art” by being labelled so by the artist. By doing so, the movement actively challenged concepts of originality and authorship. This legacy has not been lost on Levine, who has appropriated Duchamp’s Fountain before. Here, Levine replicates a wooden hobby-horse found in New Mexico, evoking childhood while also alienating it from its playful context. Even the artwork title is borrowed, as “Dada” comes from the French word for hobby-horse, and was chosen at random from a dictionary by Dadaist leaders. As the artwork toes the line between its literal meaning and its loaded historical references, Levine prompts the viewer’s reflection on cultural associations and preconceptions, consumerism and the value of objects.
Sherrie Levine (b. 1947) is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist widely celebrated for her feminist inquiries within the realm of postmodern art. A member of the Pictures Generation, Levine’s practice relies on appropriating and recreating artworks and motifs from the Western art canon as well as non-Western cultures without any manipulation, and then passing them as her own. Levine thus prompts viewers to rethink the institutional systems that define and categorise art, imbuing these artworks with postmodern critique centred around originality, authorship, and mass culture. As Levine often targets the works done by male artists, her practice is also defined by a feminist element as she instils a feminine perspective and authority into the works she explicitly reproduces. Having shown solo exhibitions globally throughout her career, Levine’s works have also been housed in the permanent collections of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and the Tate Gallery.
