In this work Cooke-Sasseville drew on references stemming from the sphere of the sacred: the installation itself looked much like an altar, and the pervasive use of gold was in keeping with an iconic tradition in which this material symbolizes light and, therefore, divine power. However, in Silence on coule<\/em> such religious conventions were in the service of a cult of the car. In some sense, the artists sought to parody what has become a widespread cult-like relation to the automobile\u2009\u2014\u2009i.e., that brand of car fetishism that expresses a manly and macho sexuality, as the clich\u00e9 goes. Ultimately, the artists ironically addressed issues stemming from popular culture and the world of commodities which, according to Barthes and Baudrillard, also belong to a sign-based economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, what is now called \u201cbling-bling\u201d\u2009\u2014\u2009a relatively new phenomenon that originates in popular culture\u2009\u2014\u2009also partakes in this same regime of signs whereby one dominates the Other by means of \u00adconspicuous \u00adconsumption and the display of possessions (which implies a form of machismo). For bling-bling denotes a superficial game in which one \u00ademphatically exposes one\u2019s shiny and luxurious \u00adaccessories, if only as a way to stake out a higher social rank and, thereby, to prove\u2009\u2014\u2009\u00adostentatiously\u2009\u2014\u2009that one has already \u201carrived.\u201d As a lifestyle emblematized by the lustre of jewellery, bling-bling has also taken root in the art world, a place where it is hardly uncommon to encounter displays of wealth and luxury, much to the benefit of the art market, which is constantly fuelled by financial speculation. It also bears mentioning, moreover, that the media is particularly fond of details \u00adpertaining to the astronomical sale price of much-sought-after artworks. For such media, the only art that counts is sumptuary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their latest exhibition, Cooke-Sasseville explicitly address the problem of the commodification of art as well as the process whereby art is marked as bling-bling.2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - The exhibition entitled Le petit g\u00e2teau d\u2019or<\/em> (\u201cThe Golden Cupcake\u201d) was held at Montreal\u2019s Galerie Art M\u00fbr (6 March \u2013 24 April 2010).<\/span> In Le petit g\u00e2teau d\u2019or<\/em>, the viewer was welcomed by a long, red carpet along whose path one could admire a series of silkscreen prints depicting a gold bar that was progressively gnawed away, much like a butter cookie. At the end of the carpet, one came face to face with a golden cupcake that was preciously housed in a glass case (apparently bullet-proof). One hundred seventeen grams of eighteen-carat gold were used to make this chic dessert whose decorative topping was comprised of diamonds, emeralds, rhodolite garnets, rubies, topazes, amethysts and \u00adsapphires. This work was certainly shiny, but it was far from fake: the \u00adprecious stones were clearly authentic and spoke of the artists\u2019 intention to \u201cgo all the way\u201d; as a result, one could not help but raise an eyebrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This installation successfully brings together two worlds, namely, the world of the rich and famous, and the art world, partly because guests were required to wear formal attire during the opening reception, and partly because of the pervasive red carpet. Here, art is no longer regarded as a site of refuge\u2009\u2014\u2009dreamt up by the avant-gardes\u2009\u2014\u2009that could seemingly afford one a vantage point outside of capitalism. Much to the contrary, art is understood here as one of capitalism\u2019s avenues of choice; its \u00adfunction is to bring to the fore the fact that paths leading beyond the general economy are scarce, or perhaps even nonexistent. The title given to the silkscreen prints attests to this state of affairs: Valeur refuge<\/em> (\u201cRefuge Value\u201d) is the value of gold and art when financial markets come tumbling down. Ultimately, Cooke-Sasseville\u2019s small golden cupcake (Le<\/em> petit g\u00e2teau d\u2019or<\/em>) alludes quite pertinently to a series of recent works by other artists made with highly expensive materials\u2009\u2014\u2009works whose authors perfectly embody the role of the speculator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this light, Cooke-Sasseville\u2019s gesture also dialogues with Piero Manzoni\u2019s Artist’s Shit<\/em> series (1961). In these canned works, Manzoni demystified the process of artistic creation by comparing it to the \u00addigestive process and to the\u2009\u2014\u2009all too common\u2009\u2014\u2009human ability to \u00addefecate. Importantly, Manzoni asked that each of the ninety cans containing thirty grams of excrement be sold based on the current price of gold; in this way, the artist wished to address the (often) obscure mechanisms that dictate the market value of works of art. Manzoni\u2019s trans-substantiation also \u00adparodied the fetishism surrounding the myth of the artist. According to such a myth, the slightest morsel an artist touches is immediately transformed into art\u2009\u2014\u2009and is thereby subject to speculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is hard not to fathom that Cooke-Sasseville\u2019s project itself alludes to scatology. In fact, one could easily mistake the small cupcake\u2019s topping for the concentric winding of a turd. The exhibition\u2019s spatial narrative also strongly suggests that the gold bar has been ingested, consumed\u2009\u2014\u2009and defecated. Moreover, the artists seem to claim that the business of cooking up art can encompass all sorts of materials, from the most sumptuous to the most vulgar. All that is required is the transformation of any given materials, and the art market does the rest. In contrast to Manzoni then, whose references to industrialization were effected by means of the \u00adstandardized repetition of cans, Cooke-Sasseville foreground the \u00aduniqueness of their singular cupcake, and thereby allude to the out-\u00adof-reach character of luxury goods. As the word cupcake<\/em> enters the French language and the world of sophisticated desserts, it would seem that cupcakes are now the nec plus ultra<\/em> of candies.3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - According to the artists, their use of the cupcake responds to the Sex and the City<\/em> movie, in which some of the characters develop a taste for this dessert.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the final analysis, Cooke-Sasseville\u2019s Le petit g\u00e2teau d\u2019or<\/em> is far from kitsch, but it can certainly be regarded as a critique of the bling-bling \u00adphenomenon. In fact, its critical apparatus relies on a postmodern strategy of reversal. This is the reason why this work draws on the logic of bling-bling (the precious materials, the overstated red carpet) as the artists blatantly remain (to the point of caricature) well within the system of art, which in this case means: within the walls of a commercial gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Translated from the French by Eduardo Ralickas]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/69_DO05_Charron_Cooke-Sasseville_Silence-on-coule-2-scaled.jpg\")
photos : Patrick Altman, Mus\u00e9e national des beaux-arts du Qu\u00e9bec<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/69_DO05_Charron_Cooke-Sasseville_Petit-gateau-dor-scaled.jpg\")
photo : \u00c9tienne Boucher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n