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Paul Mc Carthy<br />
Complicated Pile, 2007<br />
Complicated Pile by the American performance artist and sculptor Paul McCarthy constitutes a gigantic<br />
monument behind the waves of Zentrum Paul Klee. Constructed from canvas and held aloft by air from a<br />
blower, the fifteen-metre object is an exact replica of a pile of dog excrement. The prototype was dropped<br />
on the floor of the artist’s studio by his own dog, and transposed into the huge three-dimensional structure<br />
exactly to scale.<br />
McCarthy is renowned for his caustic comments about the dark side of American culture. Since his<br />
early years he has looked into the abyss of civilisation where sex, power and double standards hold sway.<br />
Scatology is a recurring theme in his work. For example, he and his artist friend Jason Rhoades presented Shit<br />
Plug (2002), a collection of excrement samples in glass bottles. The artistic gesture of dropping a monumental,<br />
Complicated Pile of dog poo, however, can only be read as a comment on the state of the world.<br />
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