When an object is veiled is when its structural form is most obvious: distracting surfaces are eliminated and only the space the object occupies is left to consider. Brian Rideout's Dans La Maison magnifies the presence of art objects and the industrial trade necessary for the dissemination of contemporary work, exposing the cultural farces so easily hidden behind brown paper.

Despite the romantic and historical references that are unearthed when it's discussed, art has become less intellectually important and more monetarily valuable. Rideout adorns the gallery with an art world icon with a sly grin on his face. The king of the market overlooks the room from his graphite portrait as an ostentatious painting of an interior decorated with the currency of this world shamelessly displays its lack of depth and excess of wealth.

But who recognizes the king? And whose lavish sitting room are those Picassos embellishing? Rideout suggests that trumping the artist's touch, or the winning bidder's call, is the hand that sheaths the work. Somehow landing first in the hands of good fortune and praise, art lands last in the hands of the handlers before it expires, hanging, on a sitting room wall.

This last wrapping for the intent to be unwrapped is the pivotal point where work transfers from potential cultural value to a systematic set of monetary values. The ability to strip art down to only its physical presence, if only for a moment, exposes its inflation: all that remains is a sense that it's better left wrapped.

(Lili Huston- Herterich 2010)