User:Mjvenditti/sandbox

Introduction
Stylized as TOILETPAPER, Toilet Paper is a biannual magazine co-created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, with art direction by Micol Talso. Founded in 2010, the print magazine is available for purchase online, with its website offering a curated collage exhibition of animated and previously published content. Toilet Paper focuses and expands on Cattelan’s previous areas of interest. It contains no text-based articles or advertisements and each image is the sole creation of Cattelan and Ferrari. The photographs vary in style and reference, from 19th-century forensic photography to contemporary advertising, and include optical illusions, games, and word play. Since its inception, photos published in the magazine have been applied to a variety of design products and media.

History
Cattelan and Ferrari collaborated on W Magazine’s art issue in 2009 and continued their working relationship by collaborating on an issue of TAR Magazine. In an interview with Vogue Italia, Ferrari said that Toilet Paper is the manifestation of a collection of ideas emerging from a communal passion about the subject. Naming the project organically, Ferrari recalls Maurizio titling the magazine Toilet Paper from the interior of a washroom. The magazine is presented in book form and all visual material is designed exclusively by the Toilet Paper creative team, which includes set design by Michela Natella. Like filmmakers, Cattelan and Ferrari use their digital cameras to explore their models and sets from multiple angles. Reflecting the duo’s interest in democratizing art and aversion to traditional and exclusionary practices of display, in addition to the magazine, their sharp, vibrant images are mass produced as salable merchandise. These objects, such as clothing, jewelry, gadgets and homewares, can be viewed and purchased internationally through the magazine’s webstore.

Cattelan and Ferrari
Maurizio Cattelan considers himself an art worker rather than an artist. His best known work is Duchampian in nature, and revolves around satirical and absurdist sculptures, installations, and magazines. He was born in Padua, Italy, on September 21, 1960 and has no formal art training or education. He often collaborates with artisans and craftspeople such as taxidermists and fabricators to achieve his artistic visions.

Though unconventional, his work is popular and successful, exhibiting internationally in solo shows at museums such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Musee du Louvre in Paris and the Tate Modern in London. Recently thrust into the spotlight when Donald Trump requested a Vincent van Gogh landscape from The Guggenheim and their chief curator, Nancy Spector countered instead with his 18-karat solid gold toilet installation entitled America, Cattelan’s work is often provocative, featuring pop culture figures and controversial subjects such as suicide, anxiety, religiosity, and the decadence of American culture.

Pierpaolo Ferrari is an Italian photographer, born and raised in Milan, Italy. His passion for photography and art spawned early career success at agencies BBDO and Saatchi & Saatchi, shooting for big-name clients including Nike, Sony, Heineken, MTV, Mercedes Benz, Audi and BMW.

His art is instantly recognized by its colourful surrealism, which he credits the style to his early mentors. Requiring almost creative freedom when working for a client; “If you call me, and you have a picture in mind and you want me to do that picture—you need to call someone else. Someone who is good at interpreting your ideas. We want to know the feeling that you’re going for, but after that we go our own way.”

His work has been featured in advertisements for Kenzo and Alitalia, and in publications including The New York Times, Bloomberg Pursuits and Wallpaper*.

Aesthetic
During his retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan, announced that he was retiring from art and beginning a new career in publishing. In June 2010 Toilet Paper began as an artist book and magazine containing only full-spreads of colour photographs that appropriated commercial photographic, dada, and surrealist aesthetics. Toilet Paper Magazine contains surreal imagery. William S. Rubin describes surrealism as a methodological approach to a topic of interest. While Dada was formed in 1916 as a criticism of the art culture in Europe, Surrealism stems from a similar mindset in the sense that it parodies or exaggerates an idea without losing its ground in reality. For Toilet Paper, images are compiled into a photo collage with striking visuals such as (photo). Each photo in a publication will center around a single theme.

Exhibitions and Publications
The magazine’s images have been reviewed and published by art books such as Lipstick Flavour: A Contemporary Art Story by Jerome Sans and Marla Hamburg Kennedy; a contemporary art and photography book that explores visual interpretations- and sociocultural implications of lipstick, spanning images from the last thirty years. The images were also exhibited on the High Line Billboard in Chelsea, and the front windows of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. In 2012, images taken from the first six issues of Toilet Paper were paired with texts and published in an anthology that made it into the TOP 10 Photo Books list in The New York Times.

Reception
Cattelan has been able to gain the support of the MoMA with regular exhibitions and the sale of Toilet Paper merchandise. Toilet Paper contains images that are often seen as grotesque or made in the spirit of shock value. While being centered around a large umbrella topic, each issue never fails to target popular culture and carries a bold message of criticism with each image. Evidently, the general public has embraced the artistic decisions made by Cattelan and Ferrari regardless of how radical or harsh because it is often relatable. Toilet Paper’s DTF Campaign offers message of empowerment and change within the culture of online dating and mass communication.