Sentiment & Manipulation

Boetzelaer|Nispen are proud to present Sentiment & Manipulation, a new online work by Jonas Lund. Sentiment and Manipulation continues on Lund’s earlier project Studio Practice and explores how to evaluate successful compositions and forms.

On the website http://sentimentandmanipluation.com a 3x10 meter canvas is visible, presented in a map like system. To the left of the screen there’s a crop tool, which can be used to divide the canvas into smaller compositions. These can in turn be reserved and purchased by a selection of invited collectors, stretched on high quality stretcher bars and signed as works of art.

Within Studio Practice Lund hired a group of assistants to produce paintings based on guidelines set out in a 300 page book, consisting of a broad overview of the most successful young artists today. The paintings were judged by an online advisory board and eventually discarded or signed by Lund based on their appraisals. This project took a surprising turn when Lund decided that the only successful works were in fact mostly created without direct artistic intention, the Untitled (Floor) series based on a drop cloth canvas stretched on the floor of the studio space. Halfway through the period for which Studio Practice ran the canvas was changed for a fresh one and the first one was cut up into four large paintings. These four paintings were four of the five works deemed successful in the exhibition.

Further, the work brings to question how a successful work of art is evaluated and made final. What factors contribute to one piece becoming more successful compared to a seemingly similar one? Is there a general method for asserting what composition should rule over another? In Sentiment & Manipulation, these questions are highlighted, wherein a collection of collectors are tasked with the effort of selection, and their decisions are tested against their will to invest.