Artists

Mike Bouchet Born in 1970 in Castro Valley, California | Lives and works in Frankfurt am Main

Portrait

Mike Bouchet

Mike Bouchet

At the focal point ofMike Bouchet’s work is the examination of capitalistic phenomena that are most evident within the context of lifestyle and the consumer society. His actionist and sculptural appropriations, which he himself terms as “misappropriations,” play on and subvert the promises of industrial consumer goods.

Bouchet has modified variations of popular brand products that, along with satisfying personal needs, also serve identity formation. A pitch-black version of Coca Cola made according to his own recipe serves not only as a substitute for paint in what are known as hisCola Paintings, but also takes the place of the water in a pool in the film,Diet Cola Pool outtakes(2010). Two actors, whose skin is reddened by the carbonation, can be seen in clichéd erotic scenes typical of television commercials, stretched here to feature-length by clipping the material together. By contrast, Bouchet is continually designing whirlpool prototypes in his series of works,CelebrityJacuzzis.They are produced for celebrities and named after them without having been commissioned as sort ofanalogy between luxury goods, identity formation, and celebrities. However, the whirlpool basins, produced of cheap cardboard and fiberglass, function as a counter-design for glamorous lifestyles and would force potential users into uncomfortable and bizarre bodily positions.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2012 O.P.A (Oficina para Proyectos de Arte), Guadalajara, Mexico
2010 COBRA Museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
The Box, Los Angeles
2009 Frieze Projects, Frieze, London
2005 Kunstraum Innsbruck
2003 Maccarone, Inc., New York

Group exhibitions (selection)

2012 Track, S.M.A.K., Ghent
2011 Strictly Global, Deutsche Bank Frankfurt
2009 Making Worlds, 53rd Biennale di Venezia
2007 Moscow Biennial 2, Moskau
2006 5 Billion Years, Palais de Tokyo, Paris 
Of Mice and Men, 4. Berlin Biennale
2005 Greater New York 2005, PS1, New York