O.T.L. Bongo in Hamburg

In September 2007, Ben Watson and Thomas Baldischwyler ran an installation at the Aktualisierungsraum at 17 Talstrasse, Hamburg, a small gallery just off the Reeperbahn in the St. Pauli district. Our guiding theorist was Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768), whose portrait appears on the back of the Lessing statue in the Gänsemarkt. His book On the Art Instincts of Animals (1760) inspired the young Karl Marx (for more see Animals). Told to read Reimarus, Baldischwyler responded by finding Desmond Morris's book Biology and Art about Congo the painting chimpanzee. Out To Lunch realised that to become an artist and to defeat the Cartesian dualism which rules the art world via poststructuralist theory, he had to become O.T.L. Bongo, a chimpanzee. These are some of the images which were produced. OTL 26-xi-2007

1. Visions in Jumbo Crayola (orange, mostly)

2. The Book Start Bears Colouring Book

3. Bongo's Book of Early Scribbles

4. The Exhibition Itself

5. More Crayoning: What is Wrong with Psychology Today?

6. Bongo's New Series

7. Three New Chalkings: a New Medium for Bongo?

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