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Everyday Appliance Catastrophes mixes the ordinary and the surreal. Unlikely events such as fingers accidentally stitched by a sewing machine, a blender splattering blood, or a cat sucked up by a vacuum are offered on par with the more common events of a washer leak, a toaster oven on fire, or mould in a coffee maker. The 8"x8" cardboard works are made using pencil, acrylic, silkscreen ink, rubber stamp ink and found images. Px(c) combines the humor of Albert Camus and the visual insight of Barbara Kruger to create a series of collages that celebrate mundane tragedy. Px (c) is the corporate entity of Montreal artist Ben Depelteau. ARTSHOP sat down with Ben to talk about these engaging pieces of art. ARTSHOP: Have you ever had an appliance catastrophe of your own? BEN: Sure. My ex-girlfriend called me at work one day to tell me that the stove was on fire. ARTSHOP: At that moment? BEN: Yes….”I can’t talk to you right now, because there’s fire all over the place and the firemen are coming, so, Bye!” I had my washer leaking many times. I decided to buy some new appliances to avoid that kind of problem, but, yes, I’ve had some. I would say that the leak is the only catastrophe that I can relate to. I didn’t see the fire. When I arrived, it was finished. The leak is the only piece from that series that I was doing and think, “Well, oh, fuck.” ARTSHOP: You’ve never had your cat sucked up by the vacuum cleaner? BEN: No, because I never had a cat and I don’t have a vacuum cleaner…no, that’s not true. ARTSHOP: Your work is often about a comment on marketing. How does the Appliance Catastrophes series fit into that? BEN: I like to use images of catastrophes because those images always end up on the front page. The newspapers and all the media are always talking about those catastrophes because it sells. I’ve been working a lot with newspaper images. I wanted to do something more related to everyday life. Maybe getting closer to people. They are like small-scale catastrophes that can happen to anyone in some ways. Even if everything is worked up to look good or it will be a little funnier or brighter, but that is basically the same thing in a car accident, but brought into the everyday life context. ARTSHOP: I can’t help but think of Andy Warhol. His work that deals with the violence from the civil rights era, the hosing of protesters, and things like that. Warhol was using those images to produce glamour and to elevate himself by associating himself with these images that were elevated because they had appeared in newspapers or were part of mass media. It sounds like you’re doing something similar, but in reverse. Warhol focused on catastrophes because they are exciting and glamorous because they appear on the front page of a newspaper. Your work seems to bring that sentiment into everyday life. BEN: Yes. It would apply to my work in general. Using that glamorous reading of catastrophes or accidents. Showing the meaninglessness of that whole thing by adding another slogan, by combining images. Just having something that is completely senseless. Having this big painting with bright colors, using advertisement style, while having nothing to say. That’s the basic idea. Using these images to somehow show that there is nothing more. We see them, it sells, but there is nothing more. They have no particular influence on the world or importance in our lives other than selling newspapers. ARTSHOP: There is a beautiful irony in that, because art often elevates the everyday. A still life elevates what is essentially a bowl of fruit, or a pile of cheese. Art’s nature is that it elevates its subject. When we take a picture with a camera, all of a sudden, the subject of the photograph because something greater than it was. It’s no longer a peasant walking down the road carrying a bucket of water. It’s art. It somehow informs the poetry of our lives. There’s an irony in you saying that the appliance catastrophe series ultimately is about the senselessness of art. It’s about bringing art down to the everyday. BEN: I don’t really like having art elevated in some ways. Having it between four white walls, seen by three painters and three critics in a whole week. I think that art has to breathe. This must be done in the everyday life. It must tell something, be a communication act. It must be seen by a lot of people, but not people trying to have the next big thing. Just having it beside, while drinking coffee or watching TV or eating with friends. Just having it in their lives and discussing it. Taking ideas, expressing ideas. That’s what art should be. Benoit Depelteau was born in 1977 in Montréal where he continues to live and work. He earned a Baccalauréat en arts visuals from L'Université du Québec à Montréal in 2001 and opened a collective studio in September 2003. In 2004, Fading T.S.F and Preventorium Rd. #2 were published in Nor: Ideas of North with events in Montréal and Toronto. In 2005, the Montréal band Dook used Quadra in the packaging for their Archaic CD. His series of Appliance Catastrophes is available at Kasini House ArtShop.
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