Joseph DeLappe

La Malédiction

2025

Description: A game controller that no one can use: Joseph DeLappe has completely covered the device with carpet tacks, their points protruding outward. What is normally smooth, ergonomic, and designed for hours of use becomes an object that repels any touch. The unsettling aspect of the work lies in this immediate physical reversal. Anyone who has held a controller in their hand knows its familiar feel. This device, on the other hand, would cause injury. The tacks not only make its use impossible—they are directed against the practiced gestures of grasping, steering, and controlling themselves. In this transformation of familiar objects, »La Malédiction« stands in a surrealist tradition. Man Ray’s »Cadeau« (1921)—an iron studded with nails—and Meret Oppenheim’s »Object« (1936)—a fur-covered cup and saucer—alter everyday objects by intervening in their surfaces in such a way that their function is disrupted or sabotaged. Since the late 1990s, DeLappe has been developing a series of works in which everyday input devices are transformed into sculptural objects. Devices designed for seamless interaction suddenly appear alien, resistant, and historical.

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