Can the spiritual prosper in an experience economy ruled by popular culture? And what is the role of the spiritual anyway?
Characteristic to the work of Eindhoven-based artist Erwin Thomasse is a visual language that is seemingly sensational, citing trendy pop cultural eclecticism: whatever ’works’ does the trick: fast, imprudent, short-tempered and bombastic. Although Thomasse has origins in graffiti, he spiritually transcends this ego–branding, opting for an expressed sphere of robust, naive and fundamental (pseudo)spiritualism. In so doing, he voices another side of our humanity, part of our being: our hidden desire to get bewitched, to be seduced by the unconscious or unrecognised, even the superstitious proposal.
By sheer display, repositioning, refocus and reconfiguration of the spiritual within pop, he touches upon our present day experience economy as a system of beliefs. By attributing icons via supposed signifiers, and using intensity of appearance via bombastic aesthetics, these icons become object of both spiritual and surreal experience. Can the spiritual prosper in an experience economy ruled by popular culture? And what is the role of the spiritual anyway?
In 38 under par and 11 holes-in-one, Thomasse targets the imaginary order of megalomania. Is this a creative or destructive force? Does a megalomaniac like Kim Jong- il take others along in an upsurge or does he plunge them in a downward spiral? How do we relate to forces of this magnitude? Alongside the exhibit, a publication will be launched that will try and add perspectives and structures to this domain of the popular and the spiritual, of the sane and the insane. Bart Plantenga, DJ, journalist and novelist, will awaken the attributed fiction within our lives. Freek Lomme, director of Onomatopee, will elaborate on the status of ’what’s hot’ and ’what’s not’...
- Type: softcover
- Dimensions: 150 x 200 MM / 5.90 x 7.87 inch portrait
- Pages: 64
- ISBN: 978-90-78454-47-2
- Editor: Freek Lomme
- Author: Bart Plantenga, Clare Butcher, Freek Lomme
- Graphic: Raw color