That experienced edge pusher Kiki Seror has come down from the shack in which she lives in Humboldt County, Ca., across the road from her neighbor Hugh Romney, aka "Wavy Gravy" of Woodstock renown, for a series of shows at the brand new Jaus Gallery, with its breathtaking balcony, in Los Angeles, Cellspace in San Francisco and at the Cultural Olympiad installation at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
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Driving up and down the West Coast accompanied by her adorable French bulldog Margot, Kiki found time to stop off at a gas station/internet cafe and upload her new work on to YouTube so that a sedentary old fart back east (our scribe) could see it. The piece, dubbed Men Performing Masculintiy: Surgeon of His Honor. 2009, consists of nine videos done with a 3/4-inch surveillance camera, arranged in a grid.
Each image depicts razor blades swiftly carving up the stubble of some assorted men like so many NASCAR vehicles racing around Daytona, a nice inversion of man and machine which asks the question, "Are we slaves to the most cheap and humble tool around," the quick-use disposable razor?
The repetitive masturbatory element, long a special Kiki touch, recalls Paul America's baby fresh face in Andy Warhol's Blow Job and asks whether sitting still, swathed in inertia, is a better alternative. Catatonia versus a lifetime of 10,000 close shaves: you decide. Either way, Seror's new opening into male microscopia promises delightful new vistas of creative sadomasochism in the future.
CHARLIE FINCH is co-author of Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula (Smart Art Press).
