Atelier Van Lieshout

Soft Edge

1990

Fiberglass
Diverse measurements

The Soft Edge items of furniture – shelving units and tables – are hardly designed. they are largely based on standard wood measurements and finished in polyester with equally standard colours. these are not one-offs, but articles that are produced in unlimited series and delivered to order. Moreover Van Lieshout has developed his own system of standard measurements, whereby the pieces of furniture fit together and can be interlinked. Van Lieshout’s furniture looks much like the kind of cheap modern furniture on sale in furniture emporiums, but with one important difference. where that cheap standard furniture is made from laminated chipboard, frequently got up to look like something else – an expensive wood for example, – the crude polyester structure of Van Lieshout’s furniture makes no bones of the fact that it is made of artificial material. No Baudrillard-like simulacra these. They stand for what they are. Moreover they are stronger and prominently labelled as being ‘washable’. Indeed, that honesty, that absence of regret forms their aesthetic statement. What more could we want than cheap furniture that is also washable? What is wrong with that? What is the use of meaningless artworks that only get in the way? At least these pieces are useful! Paradoxically it is precisely these questions, addressed within the current debate, which justify a showcasing of Van Lieshout’s works in the art world.

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