12 Jun Dirty Hands
Atelier van Lieshout
Since 1995 the group around sculptor Joep van Lieshout is famously known for transforming abstract concepts into the material world. The outcome this time is a book about their own working methods. Let’s say, they hit the nail on the head! Holding Dirty Hands for the first time in your hands, you cannot but sense its physical dimensions. This compact, unpretentious pictorial manual gives hitherto unseen perspectives into the rough and multidisciplinary world of the Dutch artist collective behind Studio Atelier Van Lieshout. Not only it is a story about faith in human strength, the transformative power of bare hands, combined with raw materials, but also, as the words written on the back of the book already set the pace, ‘Mess foam knife foam stick saw paper hammer grinder welder grinder…’ Dirty Hands is a story about endlessly intervening within the given, advocating a work which will always be in progress.