Using an abrasive punk sensibility, Kendell Geers often exploits in his sculpture politically loaded materials associated with state violence, resistance, and control, such as razor wire, broken glass, tyres, batons, and gunshots. These he ironically, poetically, and wittily mixes with his own autobiographical history as a descendant of the Boers. He aims for a moral ambiguity in his very layered practice and not always predictable ethical positioning. Social issues such as class, racism, power imbalance, and spirituality are reoccurring themes.
Seminal Artworks and Developments
Bloody Hell (1990) was a very early performance where the artist washed himself with copious quantities of his own blood, acknowledging his blood ties to Boer racism and Dutch imperialism.
Self Portrait (1995) presents a smashed-off neck from a green Heineken beer bottle, a vicious barroom weapon that is, as its label says, ‘Imported from Holland’. The title raises disturbing questions about the artist’s psyche—a penchant for spontaneous violence perhaps.
Jesusfuckingchrist (2006) has a traditional Northern European crucifix of Jesus in his death throes, covered with the joined-up reversed and inverted letters of the word ‘fuck’. Through decorative and graphic means, it expresses anger at the repressive and torturous values of Christianity.
Master Mistress of My Passion (2010), with sharp glass shards projecting out from the white body of a meditating naked woman, blends eroticism, attraction, repulsion, and fear. Contradictions abound in this ambivalent exploration of sexual desire and introspective examination.
