Description
Marcel Dzama (Canadian, born 1974) (AR)
The Death Disco Dance Steps, 2013,
Ink, gouache and graphite on paper. 43,2 cm x 35,6 cm. Frame: 53,8 x 46 x 2 cm.
Signed lower right.
Exhibitions
David Zwirner Gallery, Marcel Dzama solo exhibition: Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets, April 6 – May 11, 2013.
Literature
The work is illustrated on the David Zwirner exhibition catalogue, page 30.
Provenance
David Zwirner Gallery, New York.
Private Collection Athens, Greece.
The work is reproduced in the Guardian article titled: The dark side of the moon: the art of Marcel Dzama By Dorian Lynskey. November 10, 2022 (see article here)
The work is also reproduced on a shirt made in honor of his exhibition at the World Chess Hall of fame in 2012 titled “Marcel Dzama: End Game” (see here)
The work is in reference to Death Disco Dance, a four-minute video loop made by Marcel Dzama, featuring characters based on chess pieces. It was filmed in Guadalajara, Mexico, in conjunction with Dzama’s A Game of Chess (which debuted at David Zwirner, New York, in 2011). In lieu of the latter’s narrative of fatal interchanges and power reversals, Dzama shows the ballet-dancing actors in a synchronized, but almost entirely improvised, dance, that was planned and choreographed on the spot. The artist himself created the disco-like soundtrack using a small drum machine. The loop was displayed on several monitors in the gallery’s street-facing window. (See Guardian article).
Dzama commented about this piece “When I was in Mexico, I made this film called A Game of Chess, a live-action chess-game ballet. The sun was just setting so I said we should do something quick, so we did a little dance. I made a loop and played a disco beat on a little drum machine. I wanted the drawing to represent that piece.”