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Rapper Lupe Fiasco's Photos on Display in TriBeCa Pop-Up Gallery

By Irene Plagianos | December 19, 2013 7:41am
 Musician Lupe Fiasco is displaying his photos in a TriBeCa pop-up art gallery in December 2013, hosted by Anonymous gallery.
Lupe Fiasco TriBeCa Art Show
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TRIBECA — Rapper Lupe Fiasco wants you to get a little more in touch with art.

The chart-topping musician’s first solo art exhibit, now on display in a TriBeCa pop-up gallery, explores the barriers between viewers and art through a series of his own iPhone-shot photographs. Most of the photos show his hands touching variations of “Please Do Not Touch,” “Photography Not Permitted” and “Stand Behind the Line” signs in major museums across the world.

The quirky exhibit, called "BOUND" and presented under the "Kick, Push" singer's real name, Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, is being hosted by TriBeCa’s Anonymous Gallery in an unassuming space at 60 Reade St., through Dec. 21.

The photos of Fiasco's minor trespasses are displayed alongside warnings of over-the-top consequences for touching his artwork — one set of pictures is connected to a series of large power packs, implying you’ll be electrocuted for breaking the rules.

"The exercise within BOUND is to transgress institutional limits but in a manner both wholly meaningful and wholly absurd," the gallery said in a statement. "The seriousness of the subject matter is at once paired with the trivial action applied to disarm it."

Photos of signs telling museum-goers to stay behind a line, 18 inches from the art, are displayed with mousetraps, broken glass and barbed wire.

Other photos are displayed with crosses, candles and masks from voodoo ceremonies, or signs giving absurd reasons to stay away, such as "THIS PICTURE HAS 1980s AIDS."

“He’s touching what’s not supposed to be touched — but what happens if you did cross that line, if there were actual consequences?” said Laura Resendiz, a gallery project manager. “There are boundaries between the viewer and art — and sometimes that distance creates value for the art, and sometimes that distance just creates a separation."

At Fiasco's show, viewers are not actually barred from touching the artwork or photographing it, Resendiz said.

The photos are priced at $3,000 and up.

Contact Anonymous Gallery for more information. The exhibit is on display from noon to 6 p.m. at 60 Reade St. through Dec. 21.