What were the criteria determining these four figures?
Bruce High Quality Foundation is a collective of artists who are into radical pedagogy and removing the "Sacred" from high-art and art history. Cigarette-smoking porcelain figures with running paint have shown up in several of their works.
I think that this piece in particular is taking the wholesome knick-knack, and the teacher's chalk board, and reclaiming them as a space to "act out," almost like bad students.
Hello, can you provide me more information about this piece?
You have probably read the label already about how this work is made by a collective called the Bruce High Quality Foundation they experiment with different forms of communal, public pedagogy. Interestingly these pieces are completed by the public -- that is, they are left in a public space with chalk and no directives, and people do whatever they are inclined to do when faced with a blackboard and chalk.
The chalkboard and the knick-knacks both are associated with perhaps teacherly or paternal figures. (for example the teacher writes on the chalkboard/dictates what is taught, knick-knacks usually stay behind glass cases and are not touched). By using these items for their own, playful purposes, and de-facing or modifying the items, the group is perhaps reclaiming them for creative use.