Inspired by different aspects of his childhood bedroom, where he spent many solitary hours between the ages of 8 and 14, Levi van Veluw created three surreal rooms, covering them with more than 30,000 wooden blocks, balls and slats! Each “room” is executed as a life-size installation, without any digital manipulation.
Portrayed in one room is a desk, a table lamp and bookcase. The edge of the table is burned by Levi van Veluw, as he had an obsession with fire. All of these objects, including every inch of the floor, walls and ceiling, is covered in the same material: 14,000 dark brown wooden blocks. If you can believe it, the blocks are made by the artist and glued on the wall one by one!
While these works present themselves as a continuation of van Veluw’s formal approach to self-portraiture, they are, simultaneously, very personal pieces. The repetitive structures seemingly express van Veluw’s obsessive attempts to gain control over his life by controlling his surroundings. Dimly light and dark in color, the overriding tone of these pieces are claustrophobic and somber, exuding a sense of loneliness.
