Atelier Van Lieshout

Aluminium
Group of 9 sculptures

The Humanoids created for the park in Miami Beach, are part of AVL’s ongoing fascination with man, machine and humanity. They appear as abstract figures, which use the park and the natural environment as their habitat, formulating a subtle statement about our relationship to nature and our origins. The sculptures will be placed throughout the park, along the canal and amidst the trees. The Humanoids invite visitors to engage, stimulate social interaction and contemplation, whether it be to use them as rendezvous spots, places to remember, sketch, write, think or talk.

A video of Humanoids (2019) via this link

Commission
Location: Collins Canal Park, Miami (USA)

Wood, steel
534 cm x 210 cm x 345 cm

Pendulum (2019) is a massive, mechanical clock powered by a swinging pendulum. The clock’s hands tick loudly, ominously counting down to the “end of everything” which then ushers in the “beginning of everything” – a perpetual cycle of destruction and creation characteristic of our constant search for utopia.

Pendulum (2019) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘The Clock Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World’, Kunstraum Dornbirn (AT), 2020
‘The CryptoFuturist and The New Tribal Labyrinth’, Pioneer Works, New York (USA), 2019

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Press here for a video of Pendulum (2019)

Back to the Future Clock can show the time very accurately, down to a 100th of a second. However, it can also suddenly decided to make unpredictable movements. An especially for Atelier Van Lieshout developed computer programme makes the hands of the clock dance, move back and forth undecidedly or they droop down, laboriously push themselves past the numbers. Or they rush around, hours becoming seconds, minutes becoming a blur.
The work tries to redefine the concept and our understanding of time by taking away the certainty that time passes and the clock will keep on ticking.

Back To The Future Clock (2019) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘BIG AND PLENTY‘, AVL Mundo, Rotterdam (NL), 2019
World Expo 2020, The Netherlands Pavilion, Dubai (UAE)

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Press here for a moving image of Back To The Future Clock.

Steel

The Pipe-bomb Clocks are steel, working clockworks attached to pipe-bombs on a steel frame and pedestal. These improvised explosive devices suggests that time is running out, but at least we can keep count whilst it does.

Pipe Bomb Clock Medium & Double (2019) were part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Killing Time‘, Willem Twee, Den Bosch (NL), 2018
‘The CryptoFuturist and The New Tribal Labyrinth’, Pioneer Works, New York (USA), 2019

Aluminium, electricity

Willem de Zwijger (2018) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Killing Time‘, Willem Twee, Den Bosch (NL), 2018

Steel, glass

Suspended Hourglass shows the passing of time and plays with the concept of time, which is perceived a constant in our lives. The work is a working hourglass – an old time-telling apparatus – but also a reference to the end of times and the temporality of human life.

This forged steel gallows with the attached hourglass are part of a series that Van Lieshout has been creating regarding this concept of time. This series of works imagines what may happen if this concept that determines our lives, our rhythm and our pace, is altered to become something we cannot quite grasp. Van Lieshout plays with mankind’s one certainty, which is that time always goes on, that the clock never stops ticking and that everything will continue to change. This series about time is part of the Cryptofuturism project.

Composite

Since the beginning of modern society, rats have played a role in culture and science. The animals often evoke a sense of fear and horror. Atelier Van Lieshout however would like to stress the positive sides of the rat. They are considered highly intelligent, are adaptive when the environment changes, agile and sensitive, and very able to take care of themselves. Considering these positive notions, one could easily see the human side of the animal. The rat could be envisioned as the animal of the future; an animal that will always be here; an animal that we should look upon as a friend instead of a foe. Just like the artist himself.

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

The Domestikator Lamp is a forged-steel lamp, shaped to present the outline of two figures and their relation. Its head serves as the lampshade. This elegant forged-steel work explores a recent theme in Van Lieshout’s work: the power of mankind over the natural world.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Bronze
65 cm x 33 cm x 26 cm
Limited edition of 8 + 4 AP

The work is a self-portrait of Joep van Lieshout, an artist who refuses to surrender. In a show of stamina he drags himself from one creation to the next, morphing into his gnarled walking stick, reflecting the cycle of life from love to reproduction, growth and death.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Concrete, steel

Farmers depend on the earth and submit to it, but they also try to shape and manipulate nature. The Sower is a classic sculptural theme that AVL executed in a style that combines Russian constructivism — championing belief in engineering and Flemish primitivism, that portrays man as subjected to nature.

The Sower (2018) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020
‘ArtZuid’, Amsterdam (NL), 2019

Fiberglass

The Essential Dwelling is an imaginary tribal dwelling which takes humankind back to its origins, recalling a primitive state of being. Its appearance was dictated from the inside out, its interior spaces look like they were hewn out of stone, sculpted around the basic amenities needed for living – an ultimate example of “Form follows Function”.

Like the tribal objects, the Essential Dwelling makes a link with the modernist movement. Its organic shapes and primitive production methods, however, make it the complete opposite of Modernism. The sculpture is at the same time contemporary and idealistic, as well as primeval and archaic.

The Essential Dwelling (2015) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Primitive Modern’, Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels (BE), 2015

Location: Mallorca (ES)

The purpose-built Drop Hammer House was created specifically for the NDSM to represent destruction, recycling and production in a circular economy. “A circular economy could be very positive: no waste, reuse of products, smart recycling, no exhaustion of energy and materials. It relates back to the concept in my work Cradle to cradle in the SlaveCity Project, where even the recycling of humans was a rational thing: humans to be used and reused without ethical concern. We celebrate destruction without a clear goal, melting objects and using wreckage to make sculpture. In doing so, we lure the dark side towards an optimistic, circular economy.”

This totem forms the centrepiece of the large-scale project The End of Everything; it is the ultimate destructor, whilst at the same time the creator of new work. The work is a machine of destruction as well as a home, providing room for the Venus/destructor to become one with the process of destruction.

Drop Hammer House (2018) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Ferrotopia’, NDSM, Amsterdam (NL), 2018

Death, just like the Philosopher, is part of the four sculptures representing the future leaders of the CryptoFuturism Movement.

Composite
Group of 3 sculptures

Artist, Artist producing and Curator (2018) are a series of works presenting the creatives as beggars; the scum of today’s society. The different sculptures form a group, which confirms and ridicules the position that these ‘slaves’ of the arts sector find themselves in.

This new group of sculptures was created as part of the Cryptofuturism project; in which Joep van Lieshout revisits the Italian Futurists a century later to look at resonances between emerging Fascist tendencies today, using his art to reveal the interplay between Utopia and destruction. Van Lieshout embraces emerging technologies from genetic manipulation to robotics and big data to draw parallels between the societal threats faced in the early 20th century and the perhaps graver circumstances we face today. The question is whether these figures present the position of the artist and the curator in this new world Van Lieshout creates, or if they represent their position in society today.

Artist, Artist producing and Curator (2018) were part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Market Forces’, HERO Gallery, Amsterdam (NL), 2018

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Fiberglass

The Troglodyte is a functional work of art that provides a changing room, toilet and shelter for the departure point for sailing in the municipality of Neerpelt. At the same time it is also a shelter in the most original sense of the word, an imaginary cave house that takes people back to their origins. The work fits into a long tradition of underground dwellings, which have provided human housing for centuries. But the work of art also refers to the prehuman time, to the origin: to the water that seeps through the landscape, through centuries and ice ages slowly grinding the river into the landscape, the river on which man now navigates, sails, relaxes. It is also reminiscent of boulders that nature has laid down in the landscape, the Hunebeds and Megaliths of early humans.

Commission
Location: Neerpelt (BE)

Steel, wood

Big Boiler is based on a temazcal, a type of sweat lodge which originated among pre-Columbian peoples in Mesoamerica. The lodge was used curatively after battle or a ceremonial ball game. The contemporary version has been upgraded with an ice bath and a hot tub, offering a rejuvenating cycle of hot and cold, beginning and ending.

Big Boiler (2018) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020
‘Ferrotopia’, NDSM, Amsterdam (NL), 2018

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’.

The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – Der Fliegende Holländer, The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

“This kiss is our primitive needs in a cubist style. It is made from Corten steel which will rust on the surface in contrast with normal steel which will disappear over the years. You can leave this kiss outside for hundreds of years.” Joep Van Lieshout

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

“Fertility. The first sculptures ever were of fertility sculptures. This one has three legs so I guess that it has a penis. From a biological point, if you bring back what is the goal of the human as a species is to keep on living, eating, and reproduce. Theoretically you can die after you reproduce.” Joep van Lieshout

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

A portrait of an early morning with family, this is a sculpture about love.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Deer Lamp refers to the origin of human beings, humankind’s earliest art works found in cave paintings which celebrated hunting, surviving, eating, and atavistic worship of nature. Inspired by pictures of animals that survived the millennia, this belongs to The New Tribal Labyrinth, a body of work about returning back to the future and finding new rituals and solutions for the future while honouring our humble beginnings.

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

“This is the most essential way of drawing a figure related to the first human expressions.” Joep Van Lieshout

Enquiries via Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Steel

Cage consists out of three steel cages, which have been pressed together and pulled apart. This process has transformed the rational and strict geometry of the original cages to become an organic and fictile-looking sculpture that immediately questions the notion of freedom.

Atelier Van Lieshout’s work often refers to systems in which mankind functions today. This work too considers those systems and encourages the viewer to reflect on the role of mankind within the societal, political and economic systems. Humans now wish to free themselves from the exact same systems, hoping to break free from what they have brought upon themselves.

Cage (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
– ‘Vrijplaats bij MIJ’, Museum IJsselstein, IJsselstein (NL), 2019
– ‘Façade‘, Middelburg (NL), 2017

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

The starting point for Les Acrobates is the notion of collaboration, science and creativity, which is central to its location, next to the research centre Inria in Saclay, Île-de-France. The work is made from galvanised steel, after which it was deformed by hydraulic presses in a controlled, uncontrolled manner, and welded. The result is a playful, happy double human form built on top of one another. Just like in science and research, this work of art was created by a process of trial and error.

Les Acrobates symbolises collaboration and solidarity. With a mirrored double human figure, the work refers to an equilibrium, a constant and familiar structure. But also, it shows a moment of successful completion, a breakthrough – the irrational process that follows scientific research. The sculpture is an homage to the intangible which forms the basis of everything, but especially of science: creativity, imagination and dreams.

Steel
62 cm x 55 cm x 220 cm

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’.

The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – Der Fliegende Holländer, The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

Calgon (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘The Clock Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World’, Kunstraum Dornbirn (AT), 2020
‘Ferrotopia’, NDSM, Amsterdam (NL), 2018

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Steel
84 cm x 57 cm x 192 cm

Mensch (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘The Clock Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World’, Kunstraum Dornbirn (AT), 2020

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Washing machine, steel
140 cm x 95 cm x 177 cm

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’. The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – Der Fliegende Holländer, The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

Le Balzac (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘The Clock Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World’, Kunstraum Dornbirn (AT), 2020

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Steel
40 cm x 71 cm x 203 cm

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’.

The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – Der Fliegende Holländer, The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

Birds (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘State of Extremes’, Design Museum, Holon (IL), 2019

Mixed media
115 cm x 100 cm x 205 cm

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’.

The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – Der Fliegende Holländer, The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

As a result from Bronco, a hydraulic press that can destroy everyday object and transform them intro new artworks, Daalderop was created.

Daalderop (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘The Clock Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World’, Kunstraum Dornbirn (AT), 2020
‘Der Hausfreund’, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (AT), 2016

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

Aluminium

The owl has symbolised wisdom since the ancient Greeks. It is rooted in nature and reproduces by laying eggs, but under the influence of rational, scientific thinking it has become more angular.
The Philosopher is one of four characters that constitute an AVL-designed new world order. Death, The Artist, The Leader and The Philosopher are idols for the future.

Philosopher (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Let’s Get Physical’, Atelier Van Lieshout, Rotterdam (NL), 2020
‘ArtZuid’, Amsterdam (NL), 2019
‘Ferrotopia’, NDSM, Amsterdam (NL), 2018

In his new body of work CryptoFuturism Joep van Lieshout revisits the Italian Futurists a century later to look at resonances between emerging Fascist tendencies today, using his art to reveal the interplay between Utopia and destruction. Van Lieshout embraces emerging technologies from genetic manipulation to robotics and big data to draw parallels between the societal threats faced in the early 20th century and the perhaps graver circumstances we face today. Starting his research by building huge machines in order to destroy or recycle all possible materials, Joep van Lieshout deconstructs notions of sustainability with techno modernist speed, playing a dangerous game with nostalgia for bygone political theorems.

Fog Horn is a work in process and forms an eternal automatic orchestra.

Fog Horn (2017) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Ferrotopia’, NDSM, Amsterdam (NL), 2018

Pulse is an interactive installation which aims to engage the inhabitants of Graz and to be at the heart of the community, expressing the pulse, the life of the city. The artwork is as a beacon, sending out lightsignals. These lightsignals will ‘beat’ to the same ‘rhytym’ as the pulse of a human heart. Every time a child is born in the Graz – which is approximately 11 times a day – the pulse and the intensity of the light will become stronger.

With this artwork, Atelier Van Lieshout wants to create a poetic collective moment for the citizens of Graz. Every time Pulse’s light intensifies, the artwork will celebrate the beginning of a human life, a new member of the community added. The artwork will enhance the existing sense of community, both by creating a collective experience and by serving as a physical landmark.

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’.

The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – The Roller (Der Fliegende Holländer), The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

The Roller, the first work of the series, is a large roller, ready to flatten and compact the land.

Wood, steel
85 cm x 50 cm x 160 cm

The gesamtkunstwerk The End of Everything is the artist’s reflection on art, the current market climate and a comment on human consumption patterns. With this work, Joep van Lieshout would like to ‘blaze a trail through this imbalance, to destroy and renew, start again with what is good – to recycle’.

The installation consists of a group of raw, industrial artworks – Der Fliegende Holländer, The Press, The Hammer and The Shredder. These may be interpreted as machines for either construction or destruction, as a negative or positive force, as a break from tradition and a change for the future. The primary goal is to recycle, be it scrap, consumer goods, artworks, even Joep van Lieshout’s own creations.

Process 50 ton 50 mm (2016) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘State of Extremes’, Design Museum, Holon (IL), 2019

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com

In his new body of work CryptoFuturism Joep van Lieshout revisits the Italian Futurists a century later to look at resonances between emerging Fascist tendencies today, using his art to reveal the interplay between Utopia and destruction. Van Lieshout embraces emerging technologies from genetic manipulation to robotics and big data to draw parallels between the societal threats faced in the early 20th century and the perhaps graver circumstances we face today. Starting his research by building huge machines in order to destroy or recycle all possible materials, Joep van Lieshout deconstructs notions of sustainability with techno modernist speed, playing a dangerous game with nostalgia for bygone political theorems.

Mixed media

In his new body of work CryptoFuturism Joep van Lieshout revisits the Italian Futurists a century later to look at resonances between emerging Fascist tendencies today, using his art to reveal the interplay between Utopia and destruction. Van Lieshout embraces emerging technologies from genetic manipulation to robotics and big data to draw parallels between the societal threats faced in the early 20th century and the perhaps graver circumstances we face today. Starting his research by building huge machines in order to destroy or recycle all possible materials, Joep van Lieshout deconstructs notions of sustainability with techno modernist speed, playing a dangerous game with nostalgia for bygone political theorems.

Stoplicht (2016) was part of the following exhibition(s):
‘Der Hausfreund’, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (AT), 2016

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com