The Many Ways To Get What You Want (2011)
Exhibition
Between conceptual writing and poetic expression, The Many Ways to Get What You Want takes as a starting point the beliefs and desires as well the affective impressions that participate in the processes of economic valorisation. Inspired by the lyrics to the Sex Pistols song Anarchy in the UK (Don’t know what I want/But I know how to get it), the piece consists of a large wall mural which explores the capacity to know one’s desires and to satisfy them through a collection of brief texts plotted within a diagrammatic form.

The piece adopts a growth-share matrix (an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management and portfolio analysis) to question and expand the notion of what may or may not be considered as economic behaviour. Functioning as a speculative measuring device, the work suggests various correlations between two variables, in this case the degree to which you “know what you want” and you “know how to get it.”


The Many Ways To Get What You Want, 2011, wall mural: vinyl, latex paint, dimensions variable. Installation views, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens
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