Kendell Geers "The Waste Land" Solo Exhibition

The sexy "Virgin on the rocks" painting series, oil on canvas, 2009. Kendell Geers "The Waste Land" solo exhibition: On display at Yvon Lambert Gallery from September 11 to October 15. Kendell Geers (born 1968) is one of South Africa's most representative contemporary artists. Like many nomadic artists today, he has resided in London and New York, and currently in Belgium. With a Dadaist attitude of subversion and challenge, he resists the commercialization of art today. He excels at appropriating and utilizing the most mundane everyday objects, ingeniously constructing installations that, through historical, religious, social, ideological, and philosophical readings, address the world's most complex, sharp, evil, violent, and harsh issues.

In his first exhibition in Paris, the artist titled the show after T.S. Eliot's famous modernist poem "The Waste Land," written in 1922. Eliot was a gloomy poet; his poetry, full of tension and imagination, resonates with human sorrow and desolation between satire and prophecy, attempting to break through traditional poetic forms. This theme clearly elucidates Kendell Geers' artistic intent, inviting viewers to question the references and sources in contemporary society.

The most striking feature of this exhibition is the "Virgin on the rocks" painting series, composed of paintings created by direct rubbing of human bodies of various sizes. It presents male phalluses in a uniform, hard, and majestic manner, overflowing with lust and masculine heroism. Under extraordinary visual tension, it refers to a macho essence and extraordinary social violence, critically navigating between figurative and abstract, imagination and expression, and individual and collective consciousness.

On another wall, the "The wastel land" object installation features a pure white Jesus crucifix statue placed centrally on a black wall. The stark contrast highlights extraordinary tension. The artist points out the collapse of the Western faith system today, while conversely, the Middle East or other places use religion to transmit political ideology, shaping the conflict and tense confrontation between East and West today, between religion and power, faith and ideology. In this exhibition, Kendell Geers explicitly questions what people truly believe in regarding sex, faith, power, and ideology in this rough society.

The artist says: "I try to create unique spaces where viewers must take responsibility for facing the exhibited artworks. Of course, people have the freedom to choose to leave or continue visiting. If they decide to delve into my work, they will become active viewers... Danger inevitably surrounds my works."