“All I’ve Said Above A Whisper / Only The Way Up” by Willum Geerts

Thu, Sep 14 - Sun, Oct 29  2017

LMAKgallery - New York Consulate Region

From September 14 till October 29 “All I’ve Said Above A Whisper / Only The Way Up” by Willum Geerts will be on view at LMAK Gallery. “All I’ve Said Above A Whisper / Only The Way Up” will be officially opened on Sunday, September 17 at LMAK Gallery, 298 Grand St, between Eldridge and Broome, 6-8pm. 

About the Exhibition

LMAKgallery will present Willum Geerts’ exhibition and performance All I’ve Said Above A Whisper / Only The Way Up in their Courtyard. On view will be an installation consisting out of a triangular sculpture and three pipe instruments which shape is based on an economic chart; each represents the “sky-is-the-limit” period of three years prior to a historic economic crisis: Tulp Mania (1637), Wall Street Crash (1929) and Financial Crisis (2008).

During the performance, the triangular sculpture will be set into motion by three musicians who play the air instruments that are connected to red balloons. Every musician plays repeatedly an excerpt of a musical piece from the corresponding year of crisis: Poesia D’incerto (Benedetto Ferrari), Singing in the Rain (Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown) and Viva La Vida (Coldplay). The audible, rhythmic breathing determines the size of the balloon and creates the final shape of the triangular sculpture. The musicians will disconnect the instruments from the balloon and secure them to the wall. The sculpture and the instruments combined is the new installation: Only The Way Up. During the course of the exhibition, the triangular sculpture will very slowly deflate and return to its original shape.

In this exhibition and performance, Willum Geerts points out that happiness and cynicism of our society go paradoxically hand in hand. His criticism of the current socio-economical and political situation lays in this hyperbole and Geerts, therefore, invites the audience to look at the world around to recognize the versatility and reality of life.

About Willum Geerts

Willum Geerts has presented his multidisciplinary work worldwide in venues like the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven and Kröller- Müller Museum, Otterloo both in the Netherlands; Nhasan Studios in Hanoi, Vietnam; and Makan Art Space in Jordan. He attended the LMCC studio program in New York and the Art Omi International Artist’s Residency in Omi. He teaches at the Fine Arts Department at the HKU – University of the Arts in Utrecht and gives regularly guest lectures at other universities.