18 VIDEOSLemm& Barkey
NEEDCOMPANY FESTIVAL from 29th February to 6th March
Video exhibition
Grace Ellen Barkey co-founded Needcompany with Jan Lauwers in 1986. Her work operates on the boundary between theatre, dance, performance, and art. Lot Lemm has been a member of Needcompany, as artist, stage designer, and costume designer, since 1993. Lemm&Barkey is the name taken by their artistic duo.
Crafts–porcelain, knitting, and crochet – are an important element within their work. The materials that pass through the hands of Lemm&Barkey are treated in an almost relentlessly hysterical manner and made into something monumental. What starts with material bursts its seams to form a bigger story. Porcelain objects become body parts and even link bodies together. What could be more pointless than a teacup – meticulously hand-thrown – from which no tea can be drunk? A bra in porcelain is unbearable. And is the painstakingly crocheted bear a children’s story or a transgressive dream? If they knew the answer, they would not have created the object.
