In Zwirner Parody, Artists Offer Toy Robot Stripper

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw are staging another spectacular send-up of the art world.

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw's sexy robot toy.
Photo: Benjamin Sutton.

If you couldn’t get enough of artist Jordan Wolfson’s animatronic doll, which shimmied and gyrated in front of a mirror when it was on view at David Zwirner Gallery in March, and you weren’t one of the privileged three who were able to purchase one of the editions, you now have a chance to have your very own, in a miniature version, that is.

Artists Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw are offering a “Mini Sexy Robot Doll for Your Desk” modeled after Wolfson’s famed robot. The doll, whose hips gyrate when wound-up, is a nifty souvenir that will be on offer at the artists’ upcoming bus tour Jen and Paul’s One Stop Shopping Souvenir City and Chelsea Bus Tours, which will kick off on September 4 to help inaugurate the opening of the fall art season in Chelsea. For the project, the duo will serve as tour guides, and have converted a mini bus into a bright blue double-decker that will shuttle eight passengers along a half-hour “‘insider’ tour of the Chelsea art scene,” as per the artists’ press release. Outlaw and Catron, along with “a series of very famous ‘guest tour guides'” will be on hand to reveal “the mysteries that permeate the art world” to guests. The pair also promises celebrity sightings.

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw's sexy robot toy.Photo: Benjamin Sutton.

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw’s sexy robot toy.
Photo: Benjamin Sutton.

Catron and Outlaw are known for creating community-engaging spectacles like their Fish Fry Truck and Crawfish Boil, a food-truck-cum-performance piece in which the artists drove around in a modified food-truck strung with lights, flying an American flag, and blasting Southern rock while serving up catfish po’ boys, fresh crayfish, and other Southern cuisine at locations around New York, including Chelsea.  They’ve also piloted a hot-air balloon flying select guests over New York, and were the grand champions at Creative Time’s 2012 Artist Sand Castle competition at Rockaway Beach.

For this work, the artists return to their favorite subject: Skewering the art world. And the Mini Sexy Robot Doll, which, like Wolfson’s doll, has a mane of flowing faux blonde locks, isn’t the only art-world trinket you can pick up at Souvenir City. It’s one of roughly 50 contemporary art-themed limited-edition gifts. Others include Richard Prince Prints (from Prince’s “Canal Zone” series), a Made in Heaven baby onesie (referencing Jeff Koons’s near-career-ruining show of works made with his porn-star ex-wife), and a miniature shark à la Damien Hirst. The gifts can be picked up in the lower level of the bus for $10 to $30 each.

artnet News was lucky enough to receive a Mini Sexy Robot Doll, and we took it for a spin:


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.
Article topics