Olav Westphalen is a German-American artist living in Stockholm, drinking Italian coffee. He finds it awkward to write about himself in the third person. Here are some randomly selected words from a book that I am currently reading:
The honey offering
We ourselves
Stand before
The Devil had carried off
They want blood
Do you not see it?
Things suit one another
I wish
Persuaded them otherwise
Weary of their works
fared over the sea
They want blood from you
Flee, my friends,
The actors and presenters of “Great Things”
(Olav Westphalen is an artist, educator and cartoonist whose activities often assume lifelike formats such as games, comedy, research or cartoons and are predominantly aimed at the blind spots of his own cultural surroundings. He plays both sides of the high-low-divide, producing commercial comedy and cartoons while showing in museums and galleries (such as The Whitney Museum, ICA London, The Swiss Institute NY, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Museum Fridericianum, The Bauhaus Museum Dessau and others). His work is collected by the Dallas Museum, Centre Pompidou, Moderna Museet, MoMA, New York and others. Publications include: “VEGA”, 2024, Kunsthalle Bremen (with Samuel Nyholm), “Sensitivity Training,” Textem 2022, “Helden und Geschichten,” Carlsen, 2009; “Ü,” with Dan Graham, OCA, 2009; “24 Artworks,” Shelf, 2010, “Dysfunctional Comedy,” Sternberg Press, 2016 (with Livia Paldi). He is the founder of MoMCo - The Museum of Modern Comedy in Art, and one of the founders or the Association for the Palliative Turn.)
www.olavwestphalen.com
www.palliativeturn.org
