Cyprien Gaillard - Floods of the Old and New World, 2011
This series of works by Paris born artist Cyprien Gaillard is a collection of postcards and snapshot photographs collaged together with labels taken from beer bottles. 'Floods of the Old and New World', combines a selection of Gaillard's personal photographs of a diverse range of urban locations, with old postcards of 'exotic' or ancient cultures.
Illustrating the fragmentary nature of anthropology, Gaillard's work addresses the touristic tokenism of yesteryear, and its implied connections with a fictional understanding of foreign cultures conbined with the effects of a globalized economy. Almost functioning like a seal, the beer labels show how implicit branding and consumption could be a way of linking notions of the old with the new.
