Lot description
TERENCE KOH (CANADIAN B. 1977)MYTH OF A MYTH, MARY, 2004Cast statuette, plaster, metal, gold and gold leaf with glass display case58.5 x 45 x 45cm (23 x 17½ x 171/2in.)Provenance:Peres Projects, Los AngelesAcquired from the above in 2007 The Canadian artist Terence Koh has courted popularity and controversy in equal measure. Koh has received solo exhibitions at MUSAC, Kunsthalle Zürich, and the Vienna Secession; his work can be found in the collections of MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and Tate Modern. From his beginnings as the creator of a zine under the alias 'asianpunkboy', Koh has pushed the envelope with infamous audacity. His irreverent œuvre combines lofty conceptualism and spirituality with alternative punk aesthetics. Koh's 2006 Untitled (Medusa) featured erection-bearing statuettes of the Virgin Mary; a similarly modified sculpture of Jesus infamously provoked uproar and even legal charges when it was exhibited in 2008. Myth of a Myth, Mary is a work of similar tensions: covered in gold leaf, the religious figurine has been displaced and installed in a pot.