Sebi Schager (AT) – Vaccine

The Art History Mesh-ups begin where most appropriation art stops: canonical paintings are reproduced on canvas, then physically reworked with stencils, spray paint, and 24k gold leaf — the intervention irreversible, the original and the contemporary sharing the same canvas. Some reworked canvases are rephotographed and produced as archival pigment prints, carrying the collision from studio to edition.

Vaccine — Ingres' La Source (1856), the classical spring nymph, vessel raised on her shoulder, the eternal gesture of pouring, the body as source of life. In the Mesh-up, the water is replaced with money. Coins cascade from the vessel in a golden shower that turns abundance into profiteering, the cornucopia into a cash register. The word VACCINE is stenciled across the composition in blunt red, obliterating the classical scene the way the pandemic obliterated everything else in 2020. The source who should give life pours out currency instead — and the title names the product that made it flow. As Sebi wrote at the time: "the race is on... who will make a fortune out of the pandemic? Stock markets jumped and a vaccine promises 7 billion sold units. Happy selling 2020. What a year!" Koons wrapped balloon dogs in gold to make kitsch expensive; here the gold leaf makes the transaction visible — sacred source turned revenue stream.

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About the artist

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