Sico Carlier, Trois Pièces Faciles, 2022

Trois Pièces Faciles (Three Easy Pieces) consists of three publications – Jack the Moment, The Fan and Aphrodite – in which Carlier meticulously repurposed a collection of found athletic and pornographic material first published between 1950–80. It is a meditation on changing social attitudes, in which the artist’s hand became a roving censor, isolating and emphasising details. Carlier repurposed material inherited from the archive of an acquaintance during a spell in 2020 when he lived in upstate New York, US. The dimensions of the US letter paper determined the measurements and, therefore, limitations of each page. Aphrodite contains a new essay by academic and curator Paul Clinton, situating Carlier’s work within a history of censorship and sexually transgressive queer artistic practices.

‘Sico Carlier’s three collaged volumes of vintage smut, queer ephemera and text fragments are a reminder that one can oppose censorship without evangelising about porn.’ – Paul Clinton Sico Carlier is an artist, editor and publisher based in Rotterdam. He is the founding editor of Currency.