West London's Thomas Dane Gallery has been filled with a quirky mix of concrete pig's heads, delicate watercolours and assorted garden furniture. The idea, insists Jean-Luc Moulène, the artist behind it all, is simple. 'If you objectify your floating mental images, they no longer float, they become legible.'
In 'Larvae and Ghosts', which opened last week, Moulene gives 'concrete existence' to this wonderfully weird internal world. Split between Thomas Dane's two galleries, the viewer is encouraged to meander through the eccentric mind of the French provocateur and 'artist's-artist', ahead of an extended survey at Centre Pompidou this autumn.
At 3 Duke Street, we find kitsch garden sculptures (think long-haired goddesses and faux-classical nymphs) that Moulène has severed from their lawn-bound narratives, by sanding great chunks from them and painting them purple. In doing so, he gives new meaning to their forlorn, gushing expressions.
The accompanying watercolours (a new medium for Moulène) are just as visceral. Pigs stand headless, and an ant is caught half way through some form of metamorphoses. This interest in broken bodies recalls Moulène’s early performative work with French 'body-artist' Michel Journiac, during the late 1970s, where the human form became the subject of intense, almost medical inspection.
Moulène's boundary-pushing past is also apparent in Thomas Dane's second gallery at 11 Duke Street. Up a narrow, winding staircase, we are transported into another corner of Moulène's mind. Here, we leave the 'sobriety of concrete and stone' in place of 'intense colours and cumulative, found objects', Moulène explains. A stand-out piece is La Faucheuse, which comprises an enormous scythe attached to a disturbingly vibrant plastic garden chair, as if the Grim Reaper is invisibly sitting, waiting to pounce.
Moulène has evaded critical categorisation for most of his career, and in doing so become a bit of a renegade. This new exhibition only adds to his mythic persona. We look forward to the Pompidou installment, for which Moulène promises 'more highly unusual materials', along with 'new works, many digitally generated from original sources such as the body, commercial, industrial and medical products'.
Notoriously difficult to categorise, Moulène uses found objects and unusual materials to make physical the objects in his mind. Pictured: Fairy Fantasy, 2015
At 3 Duke Street, we find kitsch garden sculptures that Moulène sanded great chunks from, in a process he calls ’cutting’, and painted purple. Pictured left: Bending, 2016. Right: Purple Graces, 2016
The accompanying watercolours (a new medium for Moulène) are just as visceral – pigs stand headless, for example. Pictured left: Piggy, 2016. Right: Pig, 2016
Anther image sees an ant half-way through a metamorphosis. Pictured: Mix, 2016
Pictured left: Cat Skull, 2016. Right: Donkey, 2016
La Faucheuse, 2015
INFORMATION
’Larvae and Ghosts’ is on view until 28 May. For more information, visit the Thomas Dane Gallery’s website
Photography courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery
ADDRESS
Thomas Dane Gallery
3 & 11 Duke Street
London, SW1Y 6BN
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy designCreativity leaps the screen at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s record-flying roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
The modernist home of musician Imogen Holst gets Grade II listingThe daughter of the composer Gustav Holst lived here from 1964 until her death, during which time the home served a locus for her own composition work, which included assisting Benjamin Britten
-
This fun and free-spirited photography exhibition offers a chromatic view on the world‘Chromotherapia’ at Villa Medici in Rome, explores how we view colour as a way of therapy, and how it has shaped photography over the last century (until 9 June 2025)
-
‘Leigh Bowery!’ at Tate Modern: 1980s alt-glamour, club culture and rebellionThe new Leigh Bowery exhibition in London is a dazzling, sequin-drenched look back at the 1980s, through the life of one of its brightest stars
-
‘Yay, To Have a Mouth!’: a London show explores our oral fixation, from Freud to fairytalesThis group show at Rose Easton gallery in east London, created in collaboration with Ginny on Frederick, uncovers our fascination with the mouth
-
High low culture and the sickly sweetness of Tootsie Rolls: Derrick Adams in LondonDerrick Adams plays with themes of Black Americana in ‘Situation Comedy’ at Gagosian London.
-
The Barbican as muse: composer Shiva Feshareki on bringing the brutalist icon to life through musicFor the last two years, British-Iranian experimental composer and turntablist Shiva Feshareki has been drawing on the Barbican’s hidden history as a gateway for her new piece. She talks to Wallpaper* about her Brutalist muse
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA taste of the dolce vita in London, some permanent artwork and a new eyeshadow palette – it's our editors' picks of the week
-
'We need to be constantly reminded of our similarities' – Jonathan Baldock challenges the patriarchal roots of a former Roman temple in LondonThrough use of ceramics and textiles, British artist Jonathan Baldock creates a magical and immersive exhibition at ‘0.1%’ at London's Mithraum Bloomberg Space
-
Discover Rotimi Fani-Kayode's fluid photographs of the queer male body, on show in London‘Rotimi-Fani Kayode: The Studio – Staging Desire’ at Autograph ABP celebrates the work of the Nigerian-born photographer
-
Saatchi Gallery is in full bloom with floral works from Vivienne Westwood, Marimekko, Buccellati and more‘Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’ at Saatchi Gallery, London, explores the relationship between creatives and their floral muses, and spans from fashion and jewellery to tattoos
