“After the departure of the guests. . .” offers a moment of domestic intimacy. A skilful positioning of the works at the entrance to the gallery plunges the viewer into a spatial momentum between sculptural humor and pictorial melancholy. Consisting of a straight rectangular bronze plate mounted on a metal base, Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen’s Porter, 2022, takes the form of an archetypal monument to dismantle its trope. The performers draped a pair of white headphones over the statue’s “head”, threading their cable through a keyhole located about navel height, and placed a random pair of slippers and socks at the base. Despite its lack of features, the stele appears almost human or, at the very least, like a work of art transformed into a coat hanger.
The painting by Lieve Hakkers Monsters having dinner, 2023, seems, at first glance, quite abstract. Light blue hues contrast with thicker strokes of brown tempera layered in wispy curves over the absorbent surface. It is only after having carefully studied the erased forms that the spectator can decipher two figures looking at each other in profile, a mirrored composition reminiscent of the famous optical illusion of Rubin’s vase. The painting Kisses on TV, 2023, repeats the palette of blues to depict an ominously lit kissing scene shown on TV. In the dark living room, the screen casts its cold light on a body reclining on a sofa, completing the tale of a quiet night, the host finally alone in his own home.
