Charlie Jeffery's Multifaceted Practice at Le Quartier, Quimper

Charlie Jeffery, born in 1975 in Oxford and based in Paris since 1998, emerged during the rise of neo-conceptual art. His work is characterized by accumulation rather than economy of signs, spanning sculpture, performance, participatory art, and entrepreneurial ventures. His sculptures range from poor materials like polyurethane and elementary forms (mud thrown into a corner, referencing Robert Morris's anti-form) to sophisticated decompositions of chairs into fractal-like elements. In performances, Jeffery has repeatedly destroyed photocopiers and exhibited the relics, or paraded with a donkey mask as his alter ego Donkey Man, a clone of Paul McCarthy. His participatory practice includes addresses to the public urging doubt. With artist Dan Robinson, he runs the Mud Office, which questions the value of symbolic creations before market evaluation. Curator Keren Detton notes that Jeffery, blending pragmatism and absurdity, makes visible the processes of fabrication and the idea of permanent formal evolution. The exhibition at Le Quartier in Quimper ran from July 1 to October 23, 2011.