Self-Portraits, a new series of works from artists Elmgreen & Dragset, elevate the humble museum wall label into works of art in their own right. They have created oversized ones in paint and canvas—a novelty for the conceptual artists—as well as in marble, charcoal on paper and enamel on paint. The labels range from David Hockney’s Clean Boy (1964) and Keith Haring’s Silence = Death (1989) to Lynda Benglis’s Phantom (1971), chosen because they admire the artists and choice of title. Michael Elmgreen says that their choices add up to a “portrait” of the “creative monster between us”, referring to his long-standing artistic collaboration with Ingar Dragset. “It’s not Ingar and it’s not me,” he says. Their mutual love of words reflects Elmgreen’s background as a poet and Dragset’s in theatre.
The series is due to be unveiled at Victoria Miro’s Mayfair space in London (13 October-7 November), accompanied by a new and unconventional book of the artists’ drawings and texts.