2/7/2004
Kendell Geers
Moulins Albigeois, Albi
An exhibition that the artist conceived specifically for the Moulins Albigeois. Sexus, the title, taken from the book by Henry Miller, links it immediately to a wave of material hedonism contrary to rationalist or spiritual asceticism. Several early works never previously seen in Europe are presented alongside many recent creations.
SEXUS
Kendell Geers, the enfant terrible of the South African press, has adopted May 1968 as his date of birth. He defines his life as a Historical mark, his work as that of revolt…Close in thought to Bataille, he is concerned with the liberation of art and the self, confronting the dark side of the world and the human psyche,with its impulses at once for life and for death. Yet irony and humour mitigate the gravity of the subject matter, and reinforce the liberating power of his work.
Brothels and Spiritual Quest
SEXUS is an exhibition that Kendell Geers conceived specifically for the Moulins Albigeois. Its title, taken from the book by Henry Miller, links it immediately to a wave of material hedonism contrary to rationalist or spiritual asceticism. Several early works never previously seen in Europe are presented alongside many recent creations. The beginning of the project is the historical context of Albi as a centre of artistic activity, at once the town of Toulouse Lautrec, painter of Parisian night-life, and the cathedral of Saint Cécile which glorifies the bloody victory of the Catholic church over Cathartic heresy. On one hand we see the art of painting brothels and on the other the spiritual quest of two religions linked in their perception of the physical body, which are opposed in their aims to establish the sacred path and predominant practises.
Crucial questions
The Cathars considered the body as Lucifer’s creation, and ordered the abstention from all sexual rapports, going one step further than the Catholic injunction where it was only authorised for the purpose of procreation. For the first time Kendell Geers presents a show dedicated uniquely to eroticism. It plays an important role in the maturation of the work of an artist who is determined not to separate art from social issues, intimate impulses and reflections about the body. These questions come at a crucial moment when the fantasy of the ascetic body, divided from its’ charnal identity, developed by Judeo-Christian and Islamic tendencies – is returning in force with all its publicised political, social and pyschological consequences.
Through transgression and taboo, Kendell Geers sets out to represent thel iberating energy and originality of the erotic act, approaching it from a poetical dimension. In this way, he captures the essence of Dionysienne thought, where « the flesh becomes the word ».
Illustration : Kendell Geers Bachelor
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