Atelier Van Lieshout

Incubator

2021

Mixed media
115 x 60 x 149 cm

An incubator is a world unto itself. The child in the cocoon is monitored and kept alive by machines that protect the baby from possibly malevolent outside influences. An incubator locks a child up, yet this prison is also a sign of love.

Atelier Van Lieshout’s Incubator is an improvised one. The materials used such as sewer pipe and switches have been randomly sourced and the device has also been carelessly slapped together. However, this does not detract from the good intentions with which the device was designed and built.
This incubator is related to the sensory deprivation chambers Joep van Lieshout built from 2007 onwards. The artist would prefer to create a life-size incubator for himself: a safe haven in a hostile world. In an incubator, all life’s functions can be left to the protective shell and the ‘child in the incubator’ can be peacefully left to their own mind.

Incubator (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL)