Erwin Olaf – FALL

Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf’s works depict the unspoken. His stylized and skilfully quoted visual worlds address taboos, social conflicts, and middle-class narrow-mindedness – themes that he disguises aesthetically in order to unsettle the viewer.
Bar Barbette showcases the series Fall (2008), which presents adolescent portraits separated by austerely composed still lifes set in pale gold-coloured interiors of the late 1950s. Posed before curtains and wallpaper reminiscent of the living rooms of the post-war generation, the adolescents seem out of place. They confront the viewer with contradictory emotions and their as yet undefined corporality, as though they felt entirely unobserved. Coolness and physical strength are just as much on display as vulnerability and apathy; subtle and unbridled eroticism radiates from their flawless young bodies. With a similar atmosphere, the film Le Dernier Cri (2006) slowly progresses towards a discomforting climax that reveals the terror concealed beneath the veil of the bourgeoisie.