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Michèle Provost – Staging – Esse
Michèle Provost Vues d’installation, Michèle Provost: Everything must go / Liquidation totale, Galerie d’art d’Ottawa, Ottawa, 2018–2019.
Photos : André Rozon, courtesy of Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa

Conceptual artist Michèle Provost is a long-time devotee of appropriation, using borrowed imagery and citations from the global art world to expose its hierarchical underpinnings. For example, (ABSTrACTS/RéSuMÉS) (2011) dissects the disjointed relationship between art writing’s opacity and the artwork under discussion. Her series Selling Out (2008) exposes the cult of personality within the art market, by presenting collector cards of famous artists (from Rembrandt to Cindy Sherman) or toy action figures based on their work, such as Jeff Koon’s stainless steel Rabbit (1986).

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This article also appears in the issue 97 - Appropriation
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