Rirkrit Tiravanija, »untitled 2012 (fear eats the soul) (poster)«, 2012

untitled 2012 (fear eats the soul) (poster), 2012
Digital print on paper
26 x 62 cm
Edition of 25, signed on back

Rirkrit Tiravanija (*1961, Argentina) has repeatedly referenced Fassbinder’s iconic film Fear Eats the Soul in his work since 1994 – on t-shirts, on banknotes, in paintings and, most recently, in the title of an exhibition. In his poster for Spike, Tiravanija continues in the same vein, with a true-to-scale blow-up of a $10 bill bearing the film title, clashing with the truly one-dimensional platitude of the famous American motto »In God We Trust«.

Recent solo exhibitions of his work have taken place at Galerie Chantal Crousel (2020), Institute for Contemporary Art, London (2019), Hirschhorn Museum, Washington DC (2019), and Fondazione Beyeler, Basel (2018). Rirkrit Tiravanija lives in New York and Chiang Mai. 

Read an interview with the artist in Issue #52, available here.