Cibachrome print, 1999. 1803x1244 mm; 71x49 inches. Numbered 3/6 on a label, verso.
Provenance: Blum & Poe, Santa Monica; private collection, Connecticut.
Exhibited: "Paul McCarthy," Blum & Poe, Santa Monica, December 3, 1999-January 22, 2000.
Tokyo Santa was a performance-installation first shown by McCarthy (born 1945) at Gallery Tomio Koyama, Tokyo, on November 22, 1996, documented in McCarthy's same-titled 2004 monograph, published by König, Köln, Germany. McCarthy's large photographs of the performance, as well as drawings, videos, and a collection of artificial Christmas trees, were shown as a second installation at Blum & Poe, Santa Monica in 2000, revisiting the concept of transforming a beloved figure of childhood into a transgressor.
