Ketchup and Blood includes two videos by Paul McCarthy; The Painter and Family Tyranny (Modeling and Molding). The title reflects upon McCarthy's interest in, and interaction with, materials. The materials are not only tools, but become the work itself. In the videos, McCarthy is playing with ketchup's likeness to blood (among others), such exploring reality and artifice. The artist utilizes formal and thematic measures borrowed from TV series, porn- and horror movies, digging into the mediated everyday that we all try to keep at a distance without ever succeeding.
The exhibition is produced by The National Museum in Oslo.
b.1945
Paul McCarthy (b. Salt Lake City,1945) lives and works in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited at the1993 Venice Biennial and in exhibitions at Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Musee d'Art Contemporain, Lausanne, Switzerland. Solo exhibitions include Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Hamburg Kunsthalle; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; among many others.