all images: courtesy of the artist and Carl Kostyál, London

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Days at Sea is YVES SCHERER‘s new solo exhibition that opened a few days ago at Carl Kostyál in London. The press release provided by the gallery gives little information about the show but rather features an extract of HENRY MILLER’s Tropic of Capricorn (1939). For those of you who haven’t read the book, the novel chronicles MILLER’s life in New York City in 1920. The book that followed up Tropic of Cancer (1934) was really controversial because of the numerous sexual encounters that are depicted with explicit details.

As his previous exhibitions, YVES SCHERER has created for Carl Kostyál an immersive installation in which previous and new works are embraced into an intense pink atmosphere. The sculptures presented in the show are all versions of the actress EMMA WATSON: two of them are even life-size models that the artist modeled by using online material he found of her. Additionally a picture of a fatty bearded LEONARDO DI CAPRIO at the beach is pasted on the wall, floor and ceiling of the gallery as a recurrent pattern. These pieces tangle in conversation with a series of wall works comprising paintings and drawings that seem to offset the virtual and unreal aspect of these figures.

More than a real obsession for EMMA WATSON or LEONARDO DI CAPRIO, YVES SCHERER attempts to question thanks to these prominent subjects including HENRY MILLER’ semi-autobiographical novel, the mediatization, commercialisation – and eventually alienation – of individual life and models of sexual and social identity.

→ Days at Sea is on view at Carl Kostyál, London until