Hope punctures darkness in The Armory Show’s Platform Section, by Victoria Stapley-Brown
Super Taus (Taus Makhacheva), Quick Fix (2019): When the Russian-Dagestani artist Taus Makhacheva is “too busy to do something, she sends ‘Super Taos’, [who] has superpowers”, Tallant says. (Case in point: a dashcam video on view at the fair, which shows her moving a “boulder” to clear a roadway.) Makhacheva’s alter ego herself is on display in the work Quick Fix, in which visitors can roll a die to win a trophy—if they get a “YES”, on three of six sides, and then another “YES” to get the trophy of their choice, which they can take home for free. The superpower-wielding artist then puts a label from a group of available prizes on the trophy (this lucky journalist with two consecutive yes rolls chose “The Best Cock-and-Bull Story Prize”) or will make a custom prize label. (So far, these have included “Best Ass” and “Best Cat Mom”.) “What’s interesting [about the work] is watching people have that really intimate interaction with someone,” Tallant says.