Martin Creed @Voorlinden

Voorlinden presents Martin Creed’s first solo in the Netherlands – 21 January – 7 May 2017

A room filled with balloons kicks off the exhibition ‘Martin Creed – SAY CHEESE!’, the second exhibition at the new Museum Voorlinden.

The exhibition brings together around 40 works to form a coherent reflection of Creed’s versatile and characteristic oeuvre and has been realized in close collaboration with the artist.

‘SAY CHEESE!’ invites the viewer to journey in to the inner world of Martin Creed: a world that often functions as a critique of society through its humor and tongue-in-cheek irony. The visitor encounters works with cacti, balls and light bulbs, stacks of toilet paper rolls, chairs, tables and a wall covered with broccoli paintings. In the midst of the artworks live piano music is heard – played according to precise instructions from the artist and witnessed by an incongruous marathon runner who periodically passes through the museum.

‘SAY CHEESE!’ highlights Creed’s playful vision of the world and his ongoing fascination with the common and the everyday object. Inspired by daily life Creed makes simple but idiosyncratic works. With minimal intervention to the familiar items he employs, Creed allows the materials to speak for themselves. The everyday chaos Creed experiences forms an ongoing trigger to create art. Consequently, it results in artworks consisting of arrangements and stacks of similar objects or serial repetitions of the same gesture.

‘My world is a soup of thoughts, feelings and things all mixed up together. Working is a way of trying to cope, to separate the soup and escape; to get from the inside out.’
Martin Creed