On Van Lieshout’s The Domestikator

If art is about provocation, then Van Lieshout’s art installation at the International Contemporary Art Fair in Paris qualifies to be called as such. But art is essentially about beauty. There is clearly nothing beautiful in his work.

The Domestikator tries too hard to convey the idea that through domestication we now live in a civilized society. That in this technological era, it is artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, among others, that become new forms of domestication. Yet looking at the installation, one cannot help but wonder if we have indeed refined our ways. How exactly is man’s domination over nature reflected in what appears to be a man behind a four-legged animal in an unflattering position? It is not the sexual innuendo that’s appalling but the absurdity of the message. There is a lack of relationship between the image we see and the idea it tells. The artist hits it straight on on man’s triumph over technology. It is the suggestive nature of the figure that lets it miserably down.