Lachaert Dhanis’ Game of Perception
With TROMPE L’OEIL, their first solo exhibition at London’s Gallery FUMI, the Belgian duo use discarded material to challenge our expectations about art and design
Temse-based duo Lachaert Dhanis are known for their ability to pick at existing assumptions and challenge perceptions and expectations about art and design. Their first solo show in London’s Gallery FUMI is no exception: they are bent on blurring the lines between waste and collectible design in the aptly titled TROMPE L’OEIL.
The pieces on display are made from discarded and trash material: leftover wood and segments of semi-precious stone. Once assembled, the wooden parts are covered in a bronze cast, patinated to deceive the viewer into ascertaining another type of quality to the work.
As the duo explain, the works demand participation, engaging the audience in a game of reality and illusion, of timeliness and timelessness. “Whilst their form seems to celebrate their functionality, freezing it in timeless bronze and stone, the works may be equally regarded as contemporary relics, poised in a tightrope balance of profound solidity and inescapable transience, they said.
Another way to trick the eye? Beyond the furniture-like objects, the duo also used the semi-precious stones to produce wall brooches, challenging the clichés of form often associated with jewellery.
TROMPE L’OEIL is on display until June 23
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