The brilliant Joan Jonas represented the USA at Venice in 2015. The US pavilion galleries were filled with video installations, drawing, sculptures and props, which explore the fragility of nature, whilst taking on some of the qualities of a stage set.
Having seen the work of Helena Almeida first, and being struck by the rigour and economy of the concepts explored, her position as a female artist known in Portugal, but not as well known as some of her American peers, I was apprehensive of the suggestive and bombastic quality of Erik van Lieshout’ title and marketing imagery.
Going into his show the wrong way round, so seeing the second floor work first, also supported this feeling. The walls were plastered irreverently with digital printed imagery, some roughly assembled though functional seating, alongside two projections on freestanding wooden screens. The film is the same, but the subtitled languages differ. This trend in multi-language access, is again evident in other works in the show and must be applauded. The installation called Die Insel (2016) and Die Insel works on paper (2015-16) shows us in the projection, the artist, Erik van Lieshout, pulling up weeds and plants and placing them in a haphazard fashion over wire mesh. He stomps about this island, which he visits by boat every day and planned as part of a four-month residency to document his performance in the space. The artist is loud, his presence is disruptive and the filmography is hand held and abrasive. Behind the screen’s we see collections of drawings, collages, newspaper cut-out of the Brexit or the Bruxit news (as Lieshout labels it) in one corner and in the opposite corner, another collection of images, of islands, utopian and other, surrounded by water. This room is followed by a room with a series of works, called Riot/ After the Riot (2014-2015), a series of Untitled works bar one exception called Pro Russian, (2014). The works are either mixed media, charcoal, or ink and vinyl on paper. The works demonstrate van Lieshout’ ability to draft imagery and draw, whilst also demonstrating his interest in the political currents at play in today’s societal moment. However, this floor feels too much of a loose end and is bitty and leaves me disappointed.
So down the stairs I go. This floor should only take a few minutes to see if floor two is anything to go by. How wrong was I.
Floor 1 is where the magic truly resides. This is where van Lieshout displays both his showmanship and his alter ego, in this case his vulnerable, humane side. Works include Basement, (2014) a built warren of tunnels, leading to rooms with videos and corridors with photocopies, photographs, text and works called Janus (2012),Ministry of Subculture (2012), Sex is Sentimental (2009), Ego, (2013) and other works. The exhibition space is transformed by multi-installed works, in multiple rooms, that architecturally appear both precarious and quickly fabricated to create an interior within the interior of WIELS. As we move through the show we see the behind the scenes, views of the built structure, façades and works beyond, twisted into a landscape of views and vistas. We are invited to walk up a carpeted slope to see the video work Ego, to duck under another structure to see House of Guilt (2013-2014) and walk down tunnels evoking the basement of the Hermitage Museum in Moscow, where he worked to improve the lives of the many cats who reside below, by creating for them a Modernist-inspired environment with scratching poles. The collection of works in this show, which includes many video works, moves from the utterly personal as in Sex is Sentimental (2009), to the political issues of asylum and immigrants in Dog (2015) and the humorous in Basement (2014). In a complete reversal of earlier opinion, this exhibition is ambitious, intriguing and very exciting and I’m blown away by it.
