Toiletpaper
Two of spades / Due di Picche, 2017
Little rectangular gilt wood side table richly carved with foliate motifs flowers and volutes. Lathered legs joined by a crosspiece and ending with Tritons heads - Italy - 19th century
55 x 61 x 51 cm
21 10/16 x 24 1/16 x 20 1/16 in
21 10/16 x 24 1/16 x 20 1/16 in
Two of Spades / Due di Picche (2017) is a striking example of the provocative visual language developed by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari through their collaborative project TOILETPAPER. Since...
Two of Spades / Due di Picche (2017) is a striking example of the provocative visual language developed by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari through their collaborative project TOILETPAPER. Since its inception in 2010, TOILETPAPER has challenged the boundaries between art, fashion, advertising, and surrealist satire, using photography as a playground for visual subversion. Known for their hyperreal and sharply composed imagery, Cattelan and Ferrari create scenes that are both seductive and unsettling, drawing viewers into a world where the familiar is reimagined and absurdity reigns.
The work reflects TOILETPAPER’s signature style: a collision of glossy aesthetics, ironic commentary, and layered symbolism. With its oversaturated palette and meticulously staged composition, Two of Spades taps into a pop-cultural subconscious. The title alludes to a playing card, but the image itself defies easy interpretation, offering instead a surreal encounter that is both humorous and slightly sinister.
As with many TOILETPAPER images, this photograph speaks in the visual codes of commercial photography while undermining its conventions. Objects, gestures, and body parts are isolated, recontextualized, and stripped of narrative clarity. In doing so, Cattelan and Ferrari embrace what they call “image recycling”, pulling from the chaos of internet culture, mass media, and consumer iconography to create an entirely new visual identity. Their work resists fixed meaning, instead inviting viewers to confront the absurdity and excess of contemporary life.
Originally conceived as an image-only magazine, TOILETPAPER was created to make art widely accessible and freely circulating. Over the years, it has evolved into a multifaceted project that extends into fashion, design, and public art. Yet at its core remains the same irreverent impulse: to provoke, to amuse, and to challenge how we see.
In Two of Spades / Due di Picche, this impulse is on full display. The image arrests the viewer, offering a moment of surreal clarity that is at once playful and disquieting, a hallmark of TOILETPAPER’s singular vision.
The work reflects TOILETPAPER’s signature style: a collision of glossy aesthetics, ironic commentary, and layered symbolism. With its oversaturated palette and meticulously staged composition, Two of Spades taps into a pop-cultural subconscious. The title alludes to a playing card, but the image itself defies easy interpretation, offering instead a surreal encounter that is both humorous and slightly sinister.
As with many TOILETPAPER images, this photograph speaks in the visual codes of commercial photography while undermining its conventions. Objects, gestures, and body parts are isolated, recontextualized, and stripped of narrative clarity. In doing so, Cattelan and Ferrari embrace what they call “image recycling”, pulling from the chaos of internet culture, mass media, and consumer iconography to create an entirely new visual identity. Their work resists fixed meaning, instead inviting viewers to confront the absurdity and excess of contemporary life.
Originally conceived as an image-only magazine, TOILETPAPER was created to make art widely accessible and freely circulating. Over the years, it has evolved into a multifaceted project that extends into fashion, design, and public art. Yet at its core remains the same irreverent impulse: to provoke, to amuse, and to challenge how we see.
In Two of Spades / Due di Picche, this impulse is on full display. The image arrests the viewer, offering a moment of surreal clarity that is at once playful and disquieting, a hallmark of TOILETPAPER’s singular vision.