Elmgreen & Dragset
Boy Scout, 2008
Metal bunk bed, foam rubber, sheeting, pillows, wool rug
188 x 207 x 77 cm
The duo formed by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset works with performance, sculpture, architectural interventions and installations. Marked by a very particular sense of humor, their works often recreate everyday objects and spaces in improbable and absurd settings. For example, in Boy Scout, artists invert one of the beds of a perfectly well-made bunk bed, including its nightlight. By stripping it of its use, the bunk bed acquires an almost dreamlike quality, accompanied by suggestive implications. The work highlights the tension that can exist between one bed and another, between two bodies lying in parallel, separated by a minimum and abysmal space at the same time. Elmgreen & Dragset make tangible those memories of children’s sleepovers and boy scout camps, while at the same time, they evoke the sexual fantasies that we gradually become aware of as we grow up.