Hasta La Ideas

Rotterdam-based design studio Atelier Van Lieshout will present new sculptures in bronze at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London this autumn.

Above: Blastfurnace, 2012

Three pieces from the New Tribal Labyrinth body of work, entitled Blastfurnace, Gastronomy and Friends, will be shown alongside Atelier Van Lieshout’s first work in bronze from back in 2007, the Technocrat table.

Above: Blastfurnace, 2012

The Blastfurnace exhibition will be open from 11 October to 21 December.

Above: Gastronomy, 2012

We’ve featured a number of pieces by Atelier Van Lieshout on Dezeen, including an indestructible mobile dwelling and an oil drum sculpture in Rotterdam.

Above: Gastronomy, 2012

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Above: Gastronomy, 2012

Here’s some more information from the gallery:

Atelier Van Lieshout
Blastfurnace
11 October – 21 December 2012
Opening Thursday 11 October 6-9pm

Blastfurnace celebrates Atelier Van Lieshout’s relationship with Carpenters Workshop Gallery, inaugurated six years ago with an exhibition of AVL’s first works in bronze, the Technocrat bronze Table (2007-2011). Blastfurnace unites this piece with major recent works in bronze from AVL’s latest series, the New Tribal Labyrinth. The three sculptures: Blastfurnace (2012), Gastronomy (2012) and Friends (2011) explore different aspects of life as proposed in the New Tribal Labyrinth, itself a celebration of equilibrium.

Above: Friends, 2011

Atelier Van Lieshout was found in 1995 as a multidisciplinary platform by artist Joep Van Lieshout. Atelier Van Lieshout investigates material, process and form through alternative methods. Unconventionally established as a self-sufficient, living artwork, AVL has declared its independence from the port of Rotterdam, within which it is located. The artworks created here breed new forms and pose questions on the world we live in and we do so; human nature, ethics, industry and art.

Above: Friends, 2011

Through experimentation, AVL creates sculpture that varies from the organic to the industrial, as diverse and extreme as a Mobile and exhibitions educating children about recycling. Ranging from large-scale dwelling structures to human organ sculptures, both are combined in the 2004 piece Wombhouse, AVL blurs the boundaries between fantasy and function, fertility and destruction. This provocative approach dissects both the human body and systems of society.

Above: Friends, 2011

Each project can be interpreted in myriad ways; when a body of work ends, another one begins. Slave-City (2005-2009) is a monumental project, creating and exploring an alternative, ecological financial structure and social system that aims to reduce our carbon footprint. The project was followed by the New Tribal Labyrinth series, another proposal for the survival of the planet. Here, Joep Van Lisehout creates a new hybrid culture, a society inhabited by tribes based on the industrial and agricultural structures that are diminishing within today’s society. He advocates a reintroduction of balance between labour and materials, reasserting, within our collective consciousness, that the value of goods and products is inextricably linked to human labour.

Above: Technocrat, 2007

Inspired by the Arts & Crafts movement, AVL refutes the society of the disposable; an object connects its end use to the sculptor who made with his own hands. Ritual will be re-valued in the New Tribal Labyrinth, playing a crucial role in this new proposed society. In the near future, these elements will participate in the emergence of various new cultures. Groups of people will begin to organize themselves by tribe rather than nationality. AVL creates objects, installations and equipment through which they can connect with one another: monuments to be worshipped, cannibalistic sacrificial equipment, daily objects and designs. He reintroduces a sense of respect to the things we use and live with.

Above: Technocrat, 2007

The sculptures exhibited in Blastfurnace project the New Tribal Labyrinth scenarios from the mind of Josep Van Lieshout. Where Slave-City focused on the recycling of bodies, New Tribal Labyrinth hones in on making sustainable, “keepable”, lifelong objects that offer knowledge to human beings and to human living. New models of behaviour, and new systems for an alternative world are proposed, advocating simplicity, grace and tolerance to share health and prosperity, with respect to the ecosystem. Farming, industry and ritual form the three main facets of this huge work in progress – a “Gesamtkunstwerk” (total work of art).

Above: Technocrat, 2007

New Tribal Labyrinth reinterprets the logic of an economy and ecology based on industrial efficiency in an attempt to bring back materiality as a principle of civilization. Critically analysing today’s world, Atelier Van Lieshout’s work proposes a revolution on the contemporary and provides practical proposals for living, taken from ancient of living.

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by Atelier Van Lieshout appeared first on Dezeen.