PARADISE NOW: Things are getting trippy at The Gallery at Cadillac House.
For the latest exhibition in their ongoing partnership with Cadillac House, Visionaire founders Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos have tapped Italian artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari — the duo behind mischievous, irreverent art magazine, Toilet Paper — to create an interactive installation, dubbed “Toiletpaper Paradise.”
The exhibit opens today and will remain on view until April 12.
Dean and Kaliardos came across Cattelan and Ferrari’s “Maze of Quotes” installation at the most recent edition of Art Basel Miami Beach in December, and they liked it so much that they immediately asked the duo to stage an installation for The Gallery at Cadillac House.
Two months later, the fantastical installation was complete, featuring ordinary domestic settings — a fully furnished bedroom, a kitchen — reimagined through a psychedelic lens. Guests will be invited to touch, play, lounge and, undoubtedly, take Instagram selfies in the space.
“My favorite aspect of the installation is the fact that you can interact with it as if it were your very own one bedroom apartment,” Dean said. “A Cadillac executive is having a meeting in the ‘Toiletpaper’ living room right now. I plan to eat my lunch in the ‘Toiletpaper’ kitchen later. And maybe I’ll even take a quick nap in the Toiletpaper bedroom. How fun to immerse yourself in a serious artist’s imagination.”
Dean started working with Cattelan back in 1999. “He has a twisted sense of humor, and he is so totally original and unique in his thinking,” she said. “When he and Pierpaolo started Toilet Paper in 2010, it was so refreshing, unique, weird and different from everything else out there. And then they started doing products featuring their photos…and then they started doing installations with the products featuring their photos…and then they do these little films with the products in their installations. It’s like stepping inside their brains and just getting deeper and deeper into their craziness. They have such a strong identity.”
The Gallery at Cadillac House, located at 330 Hudson Street, is open to the public from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.