Summary
Francis Alÿs’s practice involves making minor interventions or disruptions in everyday situations. While he works across a range of media, his work in general is largely conceptual and performative. Even his painting practice is somewhat subversive. Alÿs regularly employs Mexican sign-painters (rotulistas) to paint enlarged and elaborated versions of his small paintings, which they are free to produce in limitless copies. His intention is to challenge the idea of the original artwork, rendering the process of making more anonymous and deflating the perceived commercial value of art. By disrupting these sorts of patterns, Alÿs plays on social and cultural tensions. Indeed, he claims his paintings and images ‘are only attempting to illustrate the situations I confront, provoke, or perform on a more public, usually urban, and ephemeral level.’ (Alÿs quoted in Douglas Fogle, ed… (read more)
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