Peter Feiler’s (1981) present show at Hoorn & Reniers isn’t for the faint hearted, but then life itself isn’t for the faint hearted either.
In our age of consumerism a curtain of fun and efficiency hides a world of control and power struggle, relentless, fanatic, cruel and both mediagenic and secretive.
It is a kind of merry-go-round no one of us seems to be able to quit from.
Feiler’s works may remind you of Jheronimus Bosch’s demonic paintings.
In Bosch’s works redemption seems hardly possible for humanity.
Both Bosch and Feiler show a fully corrupted society whose evil can hardly be avoided.
In Bosch’s late Gothic society all-pervasive, corrupt religious and worldly powers brought a new Renaissance world of new knowledge but also of new and more relentless ways of war and cruelty.
However Bosch always implicitly shows that there is an alternative.
In Feiler’s works that is not quite so sure.
Bosch shows you how not to behave, while Feiler just shows his visions and leaves it to you how to deal with them.
His protagonists come from the world of advertising, porn, comics, games, showbiz etc.
A world which seems to have replaced the ‘real’ world.
The title of his show implicitly asks you the question, is it pure decadence to enjoy his works and what are you really enjoying then?
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all photographs courtesy to Peter Feiler and Hoorn & Reniers, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
Villa Next Door 