“Montessori: Lessons in Economics” is L.N. Tallur’s first solo show in Europe and brings together a number of recent sculptures that exemplify the artist’s wit and deft manipulation of materials when commenting on politics and society.

As the title of the show implies, L.N. Tallur assumes the role of a cheeky educator, carefully setting up participatory experiments and sculptural propositions, that offer so-called solutions for the current economic crisis. His highly orchestrated presentations aim to control and manipulate the viewer’s expectations and echo the “packaging” of solutions known from the realms of politics and education.

Having studied both art and museology, L.N. Tallur draws from a wide spectrum of cultural references, ranging from art history, Hindu iconography, a globalized economy and popular culture. A series of personal migrations from his original hometown of Koteswara (a village in the southern Indian state Karnataka), to the likes of Leeds in the U.K. and his current home Daegu City in South Korea have sharpened L.N.Tallur’s eye for the complexities of trading in cultural goods. He often uses reproductions of classical Asian sculptures as a starting point for his work, which he then manipulates, injures or even decapitates to accentuate the absurdities of cultural, monetary and symbolic exchange values.

Another re-occurring theme in his work is the nature of value itself. In several works he uses actual coins, sometimes polished so as to be washed of their sins and civilized, or embedded in concrete to become eternal, they poignantly point to our complex relationship with currencies and wealth, laden with desire, fear and anxiety.

Image: © Nature Morte Berlin