Serena Carone likes to trick people. She started out by tricking thepostal service by painting stamps, using a magnifying glass and aminiaturist’s brush, and putting them on letters she sent from abroad.Originally a way of relieving the boredom of sitting around in hotelrooms, these artworks seemed successful to her when they arrivedsafely at their destination, duly postmarked and thus approved bythe relevant authorities. Next, she created three-dimensional trompel’œil works by making cameras, phones, record players, and even ascooter using boxes of brand-name products. Then she moved on tometal, working with a soldering iron. And finally, after many attemptsat tinkering with this and that, she discovered ceramics. Ever sinceBernard Palissy we have known what a difficult medium ceramicis, especially when you want the earth that composes it to becomeboth painting and sculpture—the ultimate deception. For a long time,Western art argued over the superiority of one or the other. TheItalian Renaissance called this debate Paragone delle arti, asking whether sculpture or painting created a more successful illusion ofreality—this principle that, from the time of ancient Greece, governedour aesthetics. Marcel Duchamp gave a radically new solution to theproblem with his Large Glass, a transparent altarpiece standing up inspace, a flat surface that can be perceived like a statue. In some way,Serena Carone has picked up on the Duchampian answer, includingits humor; more precisely, she has put her own spin on it, reconcilingthe opposite parts in her own way, using her personal techniquesof deception. With her octopi and her dogs as with her domesticdisasters (a whole wonderfully represented reality that sinks, rips,collapses), she moves from the trivial to the metaphysical and fromobviousness to a tour de force, compelling the viewer to put out afinger to touch the mystery, like doubting Thomas. Can ceramic turninto metal, paper, fur, or the flame of a portable stove? Serena Caronereminds us that one deception can still hide another. Welcome to thekingdom of false appearances.

• Serge Bramly

Courtesy Perrotin.