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Lily van der Stokker at WAM; Pierre Huyghe at the Carpenter Center
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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Dutch artist Lily van der Stokker goes all out with her paint box. Not only has she worked her playful, pop-spirited magic on enormous museum walls from Paris to Maastricht, she has also transformed entire building exteriors, sprawling parking lots (and their resident cars), and enviable dining-room sets with her quirky candy-colored flowers, spunky plaids, meandering doodles, and endearing graffiti, making engaging work that subverts the high-mindedness often associated with "conceptual art" through the sheer pleasure and accessibility of her creations. "Lily van der Stokker," which opens at the Worcester Art Museum on November 18, is the artist’s first solo museum project in the US, and for the occasion, she is working in residence at WAM to complete four new wall paintings, touching on her favorite themes of family and friends with some new twists that add a bit of a dark side to the love fest that is her work. Discussing the origins of her scribbled words and phrases and loopy drawings of familiar objects like boxes and daisies, the artist says in the show’s press release: "I wasn’t seeing certain things in the art world, stuff about little kids or being nice to people. Because art is all about big, serious, important people, whereas I was feeling like a really small individual. It [my art] had to be different. It had to be about colors and kids and happiness and pleasure. That I never saw in conceptual art because conceptual art was always very serious and difficult. And I thought: ‘I want to make conceptual art that’s easy.’ " Easy? Van der Stokker may elicit easy smiles, but she sneaks in a bit of thinking, too. In the spirit of witty Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers, her work conflates things that exist in two, three, and even four dimensions — a line, a cube, language — with their visual representation. And with a big grin! History and personality are the stuff of a great multimedia happening coming to Harvard’s Carpenter Center — the only building in North America designed by the legendary Le Corbusier. The occasion is the 40th anniversary of the iconic concrete building, and the happening is "Huyghe + Corbusier: Harvard Project," a wild ride that opens November 18 with a puppet show at the Carpenter Center orchestrated by French artist Pierre Huyghe, master of many media, recipient of many prizes (including, in 2002, the prestigious Hugo Boss Prize from the Guggenheim Museum), and a generally much-celebrated and much-exhibited artist. Huyghe has spent more than two years researching this fascinating building and its creator, conducting workshops with students, and reviewing Harvard’s Le Corbusier archives. The result takes the form of an elaborate puppet opera recounting the story of the Carpenter Center’s conception and construction that will be staged using custom-crafted marionettes playing the parts of Le Corbu himself along with other key figures (and a pretty cute bird, to judge from some preliminary photographs). The show will be staged in a series of performances beginning at 6:30 p.m. in a big, mossy, temporary shell specially designed to bring the center’s subterranean, underused outdoor space into the limelight. Space is limited in that shell, so call ahead for information regarding seating. Thereafter, a film of the opera will be screened continuously in the building’s third-floor Sert Gallery. "Lily van der Stokker" is at the Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street in Worcester, November 18 though February 27. You can meet the artist and watch her work next Thursday, November 11, from 3:30 to 5 p.m.; this event is free, but registration is required (phone number below). Van der Stokker will speak about her work, with an opening reception to follow, on November 18 at 6:30 p.m. That evening’s events are free for members, $8 for non-members; call (508) 799-4406. "Huyghe + Corbusier: Harvard Project" is at Harvard University’s Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, November 18 through April 17; call (617) 495-9400.
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