Atelier Van Lieshout

Telephone Guy

2020

Mixed media
109 x 120 x 193

The Dutch aren’t big on flying the flag. Some feel the national tricolour has been claimed by the right-wing, for others it brings to mind a colonial past that doesn’t inspire pride. Hence the burn marks on the flag behind Telephone Guy, a rag unceremoniously tied to an undersized flagpole. He is also hauling an outdated telephone in a pretty but useless velvet sleeve and wearing a gasmask that won’t improve the quality of his communications. His shamanistic outfit underlines the symbolic, irrational nature of all messaging; closer to a spirit whisperer than a modern day logistics officer. Telephone Guy is a giant on clay feet, bogged down in the national identity debate.

Telephone Guy (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
Fake Me Hard, AVL Mundo, Rotterdam (NL), 2021

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