EXHIBITION CATALOG FOR THE CORNELL FINE ARTS MUSEUM 2012

The work of New York-based artist Rinaldo Frattolillo cleverly plays with words and concepts based on both popular culture and the art world. His diverse artistic practice comes out of the legacy of 1960s Pop Art through his choice of common, everyday objects and motifs as the source of his humorous paintings, prints, and sculptures.

He often hones in on common conceits around the themes of love and lust. The artist works indifferent media—including bronze, Belgian linen, corrugated steel, photography, acrylic, wood, plastic, barbed wire, glass, and granite—to visualize these tropes with ironic and amusing twists. His aim is to amuse and provoke viewers so they are prompted to reconsider what they are seeing. Frattolillo’s use of irony is especially potent.

His work is critical of religion, the state, politics, and especially art. Deflating elevated concepts in a reverse alchemical process, he cynically makes apparent the realities of the art market. For example, the same year the contemporary British artist Damien Hirst created the diamond-encrusted skull entitled For the Love of God (2008), Frattolillo mockingly debuted Damius Chocolatechipus – a skull covered with chocolate chips. Frattolillo converted Hirst’s extravagant, precious materials into cheap, digestible objects.

In Mr. Goodbar (2007), Frattolillo represents the well-known packaging of the Toblerone chocolate bar, rebranding it “Testosterone.” It takes the viewer a second glance to notice the difference, as the size and typeface are exactly the same as the original wrapper. In renaming the chocolate bar, Frattolillo draws attention to the object’s phallic attributes: its elongated shape as well as the macho packaging. As pictured in this work, one end of the chocolate bar is open and the foil is pulled back, exposing the dark and tempting interior and inviting the viewer to take a bite.

Libido and lust are bound to gustatory pleasure, here made readily available in one sexy package. Like Fratolillo’s other works, Mr. Goodbar sardonically points to the commodification of human pleasure in the modern world. Everything is for sale and easily replicated in infinite multiples, be it chocolate, sex, or art. Even the medium itself—silkscreen—refers to the easy reproducibility of the art object.

Martina Tanga PhD