Rivieren is a metaphysical artist. It is impossible to approach his work without sensing that it is speaking to the audience in both physical and spiritual terms. Over the years, Rivieren has developed a decidedly minimalist style as he experimented with stainless steel recycled from the industrial scrap yards of the UAE. This new collection of work demonstrates that Rivieren has set himself free from the constraints of this medium. ‘The Hatching’ concerns itself with themes of identity and human nature – a ruminative process that found primary solace in the shape of an egg.
‘The egg is at the origin of everything’ says Rivieren, ‘it symbolizes purity and innocence – a state at which one hasn’t yet been corrupted’. Oversized stainless steel eggs reaching 80 cm in height and weighing approximately 45 kilos are set in a confounding array of surreal situations. Whether suspended from a bough as a skeletal form, framed as an ancestral portrait, or placed on a delicately gilded baroque stand, these eggs playfully cast the mundane in an exceptional light.
Our greatest commonality is in birth – here symbolized by the egg – an event that supersedes all the divisive constructs of existence, be it wealth, social position, race or creed. Rivieren manifests these divisions through the various scenarios of his eggs. We find one trapped in a cage whose door is far too small to pass; another hangs from a delicate unbalanced tree branch; yet another is crafted from compressed stainless steel objects used in daily life. We also find a solid egg breached by an enigmatic red hand which counterintuitively gestures STOP. This piece, called ‘Original Sin’, refers to the capacity of a human to say NO, to decide what to do with his own life. And this, in all its concision, is probably Rivieren’s main message.
Rivieren’s ‘domestic black box’ (which is in fact orange) is the latest exponent of his stylistic divergence from the steel form. Stemming from the idea of the aircraft black box, it is designed to record any noise rising above a certain decibel level. This discriminating object passively reminds us of the difference in human behaviour between public and private spaces, both in its function as a recording device and in its presence as a behavioural inhibitor, that house-guest who never leaves.
The exhibition also presents a collection of ‘trophies’ – a novel take on those prized spoils of the hunt, it is also light-hearted criticism of an age-old pastime. In Rivieren’s world, buffalo horns flash in vibrant colours on resin bases, elephant tusks made of stainless steel are ironically titled ‘Defense de Tirer’, two short burnished rhino horns are mounted on an oxidized base, and a glistening stag trophy towers over a bowed rust-brown head. Each trophy is nonetheless classically suspended on the wall, monumental and serene in its role as Rivieren’s tongue-in-cheek treatment of this means-of-survival-turned-sport.
The work found in ‘The Hatching’ is testament to Rivieren’s inventive spirit and perennial originality, revealing an earnest contemplation of the human condition and the world around him. Rivieren’s innate awareness of an object’s physical presence and his appreciation of the aesthetic and symbolic power of materials allow him to forge links between space and solidity, ideas and reality.
