Cady Noland

The American artist Cady Noland (b. 1956) seeks to reveal the myths underlying 'the American dream'. Her art hinges on what she conceives of as the country’s failed promises of freedom, safety and prosperity for all. By combining iconic objects and pictures (e.g., flags, Budweiser beer cans, celebrity photos and tabloid pages) with recognizable objects from American middleclass culture (shopping carts, handcuffs, wheelchairs and traffic barricades, car parts, aluminium sheeting and other such industrially produced objects), Noland creates arrangements which explore how social and physical interaction functions in American society.

What Noland seeks to reveal through her art is an American society that developed in the wake of the Vietnam War, Kennedy’s murder, the 1968 student protests and the Watergate scandal – events that threatened the idea of the USA as a united, just and indomitable society. In this society Noland finds the topos of 'anti-heroes', as expressed through figures such as Lee Harvey Oswald and Patricia Hearst. Noland has screen-printed the latter’s portrait on many a sheet of aluminium.

Like Andy Warhol, Noland finds the screen-printing technique well-suited for exploring her themes. She exaggerates the inherent qualities of techniques common to mass-production and consumer culture, thus questioning their ability to present truth. The work Japanese Cowboys (1990-91) is a three-meter sheet of aluminium leaned against the wall. On the shiny surface, which reflects the viewer and the room, we find pictures that call to mind the 'Wild West': cowboys, dead bodies and old cars. The motif of the two Japanese 'outlaws' is the most striking, and there is something comical about it. 'The cowboy' is perhaps the most iconic symbol of the American thirst for individuality and freedom. It has become conventional and commercialized and even gained currency in Japan. In the context of Noland’s work, the cowboy can express an identity crisis or disillusionment about American history, pop culture and violence. Richard Prince and Gardar Eide Einarsson are two other artists in Rotations #2 who deal with the cowboy myth in their works.

With a strategic lightness, Noland combines the iconographic sources of Pop Art with minimalist expression. Her assemblages and installations place her in a post-minimalistic tradition along with artists such as Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Mike Kelley. These artists also filled their minimalist works with meaningful content, yet unlike Noland, they are often lyrical and personal in their approach. Noland’s artistic practice seems to exist quite apart from her life, and can best be understood as a form of socio-archaeology or a 'pathological' staging of reality.

Noland was actively involved in the international art scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She withdrew from it in 1994. Nevertheless, exhibitions of her works have influenced new generations of artists eager to unearth what lies beneath contemporary culture. As such, Noland is an important precursor for Nate Lowman, Dan Colen, Ida Ekblad, Gardar Eide Einarsson and Matias Faldbakken.

GÅ