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Kousteeth

Kousteeth
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    • Kosuth’s Teeth
    • Kousteeth
  • 1980/2015
  • b&w photograph
  • 24 × 17,8 cm
Sven Stilinović’s photo work „Kousteeth“ or „Kosuth’s Teeth“ ironizes Joseph Kosuth‘s tautological conceptual artistic practice, which started in the mid-1960s. In many instances, photo-based language works denote appropriation strategies where the visual signifier and the textual signified overlap. Stilinović has never been content with the outcome of traditional photography, which was already visible as of 1975, when he started searching for alternatives to re-appropriate conventional artistic strategies. For this work, he painted the nine capital letters of the word KOUSTEETH on his upper set of teeth, paying tribute to one of the founders of conceptual art while blending his name with the denoted objects. The grinning gesture undermines Stilinović’s mocking character, while at the same time claiming autonomy as an artist. W.S.