Erik van Lieshout

In the video Erik van Lieshout -- a doughy, balding, average-looking fellow wearing rectangular, plastic-rimmed glasses -- ruminates anxiously in a squeaky, sing-songy voice about a new romance. His former assistant has recently become his lover, which has thrown him into a tizzy. He's afraid she'll take away valuable time for art making. As he worries in English-subtitled Dutch, his mood ranges from irritable to defiant to abject. We also see him painting and making mixed media collages in manic, stop-action animation, in many cases using (and defacing) photographs of his girlfriend. Erik van Lieshout's shameless narcissism is funny. He comes off as absurdly superficial and touchingly real as he reveals the sorts of traits -- his insecurities, infantilism, selfishness and desire for power -- that most of us try to hide. (Source: The New York Times, Feb 6, 2009) This film re-examines the Romantic (and here somewhat objectionable) image of the artist as the suffering egocentric. In it, Van Lieshout lays bare – quite literally – his relationship with his assistant-turned-girlfriend and attempts to analyse his own emotional confusion as he faces a choice between love and work. Although he has long been baring his soul (and more) in his work – revealing his therapy sessions, sexual obsessions and professional doubts in all their gory glory – here he exposes a deeper level of soul searching, asking “What is love? How do you love?” It is as if Van Lieshout desperately trying to learn the codes for meaningful interaction with any ego other than his own. Surrounded by images of a designer bathroom, partly obscured by net curtains, the installation is evocative of a tart's boudoir or an oversized four-poster bed. The net curtains – the ultimate symbol of prurience and privacy – highlight Van Lieshout's realization in the film: “I've a problem with private and public.” (This text is an extract from the exhibition brochure of Erik van Liesthout : The Show Must Ego On, Wiels-Centrum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Brussel, 30.09.2016 - 08.01.2017)