The Italian job

Could anything stop the long queue of serious artists who are waiting to put their work up as collateral on 15 minutes luxuriating in the glamour of the fashion world? Doesn’t look like it. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that artists like Gilbert and George had to make a sneak run to out-of-the-way Tokyo to strut their fashion stuff and avoid a WTF pie in the face from the artworld. 

But now that Jenny Holzer has reached out to Italian Vogue you can forget all that old-school decorum. Even spun out as an-opportunity-to-get-a-wide-audience-not-even-possible-in-the-art-world, Holzer pimping up some of her most powerful TRUISMS including TORTURE IS BARBARIC and sending them down the cat walk is breathtaking. 

And while Holzer agreeing to have her ‘TRUISMS’ spread across the cover and pages of Vogue may have been intended as deep irony, at least one of them still rings true: the abuse of power comes as no surprise.

Anyway, now the gates are wide open it’s clear sailing for that cat food commercial you’ve had your eye on Gerhard, and Roni, the Zyliss Easy-Chop endorsement? Why the hell not. 

Image: H.C. Experimental – Photographer Peter Lindbergh (2b Management) collaborating with conceptual artist Jenny Holzer for the September issue of Vogue Italia. You can see the rest here