BLASE© or the Art of Diversion
Discover a beautiful selection of works by the artist BLASE through our exhibition Hey Kid!, featuring recent and older pieces focused on the theme of the inner child. A poetic and liberating exploration, encouraging you to reconnect with imagination.
Let your playful spirit guide you and dive into a universe where art and entertainment come together in a unique way!
A frontal attack against the cultural productions of commercialized contemporary art
Ten years of maturation led to Rise and Fall of the Empire. Born “accidentally” at first, this work has emerged as a frontal attack on the cultural productions of commercialized contemporary art. This Little Pony, crowned with a carrot horn like a makeshift unicorn, distills sharp irony directed at figures like Jeff Koons, whose over-marketed creations remind us that art today often serves as little more than a lucrative pretext.
This sculpture does more than distort reality; it reveals a world where the true “artists” are not the creators but the investment funds, manipulators of cultural and financial values. These investors, by injecting capital, transform culture into a commodity and create their own currency: artworks designed as financial assets. Rise and Fall of the Empire exposes this harsh vision, where creativity has become a mere cog in the machinery of strategic investment.
Far from being a simple joke or a nod to childhood, this sculpture denounces the cynical commodification and exploitation of regressive symbols, which serve both as a balm to soothe modern anxieties and as a siphon for wallets. Through this symbolic and incisive repurposing, Blase pushes the viewer toward a fundamental question: in this game of power, who is the artist, and who is merely the product?
The artist even envisioned a monumental performance to embody this vision. At the center of the stage, a colossal version of Rise and Fall of the Empire — a modern Trojan horse — would be pulled by slaves who see in it a magical unicorn. Behind it, in contrast, a procession of men in suits with briefcases, straight out of the City, actively maneuver around the scene, positioning this brazen Apiaceae to perfect the work. While those pulling the sculpture are enchanted by the creature’s magical appearance, the financiers behind it grasp the cynicism and irony of the situation, fully aware of the elaborate façade they orchestrate.
Accompanied by the repetitive and hypnotic music of Philip Glass, this scene becomes an allegory of power dynamics in art and, more broadly, in society: a proletarian mass, compelled to admire what is ultimately a façade, crafted solely to enrich those who wield the real power.
— Blase
Dimensions of the unicorn (without the carrot)
Height: 50 cm
Length: 55 cm
Width: 25 cm
Dimensions of the carrot
Without the leaves: 65 cm
With the leaves: 100 cm
Max. diameter: 10 cm
More Information
Find the presentation of BLASE©'s work on achetezdelart.com/blase.
