Joep Van Lieshout on his controversial examination of the human condition

Joep van Lieshout has been treading the blurry line between art and design since the early 80s. His studio, Atelier Van Lieshout, which he founded in 1995, has created everything from sexually suggestive sculptures to utilitarian office chairs.
Unsurprisingly, his work, sometimes shocking in its frankness, often attracts attention. Most recently he found himself at the centre of a media storm when plans to display his fibreglass sculpture resembling a man penetrating an animal were scrapped by the Louvre at the last minute.
‘It was totally innocent,’ says a baffled Van Lieshout, as he surveys a lamp version of the controversial ‘Domestikator sculpture’. ‘I couldn’t understand the fuss at all, but,’ he adds, ‘I’ve never had so much publicity in my whole life.’
‘Flatpack’ concrete chair, 2016
While the much larger fibreglass sculpture ended up on show at Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the lamp version currently sits in the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London at his ‘Lust for Life’ show, which opened today.
Here, the Rotterdam-based sculptor’s ponderings on the human condition manifest themselves in lamps and furniture made from cast bronze, concrete and contorted steel.
While the ‘Domestikator’ lamp, he says, is a questioning of what ethical taboos will remain when science and technology can surpass the limits of biology, a series of anthropomorphic cast bronze lamp sculptures explore the inevitable process of aging – an old man with a cane is bent double under one cast bronze diffuser, while a youthful couple in an elegant embrace dance beneath another.
In among the lamps is a brutalist flat pack chair made from blocks of heavy concrete bolted to a steel structure. Nearby a similarly monolithic chair with plywood sides is decorated with tribal carvings.
Most recently, Van Lieshout has been enjoying a more ‘conceptual phase’ in his studio, where he has been exploding gas canisters, contorting steel with hydraulics and dropping anvils into white goods. The result is a series of heavy, butchered metal sculptures and lamps.
The series, he says, is particularly inspired by the early 20th-century Italian Futurists, who were passionate nationalists, anarchists and great admirers of new technologies and violence.
‘In a way our society is in a similar situation now with a lot of technological changes, but also with the incredible popularity of fascism and populism’ explains Van Lieshout. ‘This piece is a statement about design in that you can use not shape or aesthetics or function as a departure point for making, but instead you use the process itself or destruction.’
Next up on his agenda is a ‘24 hours of destruction’ clock – ‘Every minute there will be a new form of destruction,’ he says, ‘hammering, pulling, pushing.’
Despite this fascination for friction, Van Lieshout has a surprisingly positive outlook, concluding, ‘Myself? I am a brutalist optimist.’
Van Lieshout’s ponderings on the human condition manifest themselves in lamps within the show
Left, ‘Domestikator’ lamp. Right, ‘Old Man’ lamp, both 2018
‘Hydroform Long Gas Tank’ light, 2016
Left, ‘Hydroform Prepared’ floor light. Right, ‘Flatpack’ concrete chair, both 2016
INFORMATION
’Lust For Life’ is on view until 11 May. For more information, visit the Carpenters Workshop Gallery website
ADDRESS
Carpenters Workshop Gallery
4 Albemarle Street
London
W1S 4GA
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ali Morris is a UK-based editor, writer and creative consultant specialising in design, interiors and architecture. In her 16 years as a design writer, Ali has travelled the world, crafting articles about creative projects, products, places and people for titles such as Dezeen, Wallpaper* and Kinfolk.
-
The great American museum boom
Nine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient music
Grammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
-
Wallpaper* checks into Gansevoort Meatpacking, an art-filled hotel that mirrors the district’s glow-up
This sharp, stylish New York hotel is a fixture in its neighbourhood, where boutiques, restaurants and clubs have long since taken over spaces once occupied by slaughterhouses
-
Design beyond humans: a new exhibition argues that the world doesn’t revolve around us
‘More Than Human’ at London's Design Museum (until 5 October 2025) asks what happens when design focuses on the perspectives and needs of other species, from bees to seaweed
-
‘100 Years, 60 Designers, 1 Future’: 1882 Ltd plate auction supports ceramic craft
The ceramics brand’s founder Emily Johnson asked 60 artists, designers, musicians and architects – from John Pawson to Robbie Williams – to design plates, which will be auctioned to fund the next generation of craftspeople
-
‘Disabled people have always been here’: a new V&A show centres on disability in design
Curator Natalie Kane takes us through five key exhibits from the London show, where design points the way to a more inclusive society
-
Malta’s London Design Biennale installation ‘reclaims death as a moment of reflection, not fear’
Wallpaper* speaks with Andrew Borg Wirth, curator of Malta's installation, ‘URNA’, which reimagines cremation rituals
-
11 things that caught our eye at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025
The Wallpaper* team bring you highlights from London’s Clerkenwell Design Week (20-22 May) – from public installations to product launches and a biscuit bar
-
‘R for Repair’ at London Design Festival displays broken objects, re-formed
In the second half of a two-part exhibition and as part of London Design Festival 2022, ‘R for Repair’ at the V&A displays broken objects, re-formed
-
‘Finding quality through the act of making’: Pearson Lloyd celebrates 25 years of design
Pearson Lloyd’s show ‘Change Making’ reflects on past designs from its archives, showcasing the influences on and evolution of the studio, from furniture design to the NHS
-
Tom Dixon marks his studio's 20 years with a show of design experiments
Mushroom, cork, steel coral and more: Tom Dixon showcases an overview of his design experiments as he celebrates his practice's 20 years