Ready-made brass signs affixed to staircase
4 x 18 x 0.15 cm (sign)
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
In her artistic work, Ceal Floyer focuses on the simple things in life. By means of minimal interventions she gives them a new presence, thus extracting them from everyday perception. A rubbish bag or a light bulb, technical appliances such as a slide projector or a beamer are the material of her works, as are words. Sometimes she operates deliberately with the ambiguity of words, that is often reflected in the titles of her works, but also questions the use of signs and warnings, mostly in a humorous way. In numerous works she sets out to investigate the institutional context, playing with the character of architectural elements and the instructions given to visitors regarding their use. Audience expectations of art always play an important role for Ceal Floyer as well: this was emphasised, for example, by her five-minute Nail Biting Performance at documenta 13, in which the artist bit her nails into a live microphone ahead of the press conference.
Mind the Step consists of numerous identical brass signs installed on each step of a staircase. The signs are familiar from everyday contexts, and so there is nothing surprising about their presence at first sight: the situation only becomes absurd when you notice that you are being warned about each and every step on the staircase. By repeating the warning, Ceal Floyer paradoxically inverts the advice to be careful: the care that supposedly needs to be taken becomes a possible source of danger. Thus duplicated, the signs are divested of their true meaning while at the same time drawing the viewers' attention to the artist's work.
Letizia Ragaglia
"I consider the things I make to be self-reflexive; they are not necessarily about anything outside of the work itself and the context of its production, and I mean this in both terms of its being made and its being shown. The activity of making the work and the consequent result of it being shown become inseparable."
Ceal Floyer
"Freddy Contreras and Ceal Floyer in conversation with Kim Sweet", in: Freddy Contreras and Ceal Floyer (exhibition catalog), April 26–June 4, 1995 (London: The Showroom, 1995), n/p.
