Installation as empty stage set

An exhibit that meant little to me when it was on view won’t go away now that it’s gone – Bas Louter‘s Dust (Asphalt) at Ambach & Rice. Paintings fanned out across the walls like pages of a book riffling in the wind.

The images in black and white were muted and deliberately vague. A
woman stood beside a car in a pose familiar from advertising: Buy this car and get the girl.
But car and girl were a myopic blur drained of color. Clowns gazed
into the middle distance, where no performance takes place. A portrait
of a humanoid ape lifted the corner of its thick lip, either to greet or
growl. She’s from Planet of the Apes but can’t be found in any frame of the movie.

Dust (Asphalt) was neither here nor there. I thought when I saw it that Louter’s efforts would make a good stage set for an absurdist drama, but lacking the drama, lacked visual momentum. Louter is one of those artist who appears to paint on a whim. He could just as easily take photos, make videos or pile empty suitcases in a corner. HIs paintings neither catch nor kill. Teflon, engagement slides off them, and I think, in retrospective, that is the point.