I have a maid, she keeps me soft. Josephine Pryde, 2006

Just how old IS the art world? Sometimes it seems as if our understandable pre-occupation with the intense pressure exerted by new markets can obscure the quainter, more charming, old nineteenth century side of the business. On the other hand, it could be those very market forces that help to fossilize the art scene into a pack of 100 year old bourgeois, whilst lending us a veneer of up-to-the-minute sophistication in the meantime.

Maids & Magnetism is a show that attempts to peek behind the curtain at some of the social relations that still traverse the core of our field of endeavour today.

A series of 14 colour photographs shows two week’s usage of capsules containing a cosmetic serum for the face and neck. The blue blob however is not an anti-aging formula for galleries. The photographs of various hallucinations are mysterious allusions to some of the charismatic forces that make the world go round. A beautiful young maid gazes out from Giclée prints made on the newest Epson 9800 printer. In two text pieces, the artist and her maidservant tell the story of their collaboration on an interview.