Lal Batman’s first solo exhibition in Germany, “The Floor is Lava,” can be seeen at Anna Laudel Düsseldorf.
Inspired by common children’s games played in schoolyards, the exhibition exceeds beyond the innocence of childhood games, to delve into complex themes such as ridden anxiety, impending catastrophes, and haunting memories which one is faced with throughout adulthood. Through her art, Batman aims to explore the multifaceted aspects of the human psyche and the anxieties that can manifest as people transit from childhood to adulthood.
The artist creates a conglomerate of futuristic landscapes, underworld scenarios, and fantastic imagery in her sculptural and video works reflecting the vast range of mental states we experience.
The sculptures in the exhibition, with their preposterous size and mass, mirrors the bizarre, grotesque and also sinister games of childhood, obstructing the audience’s movement in the exhibition space.
Batman’s artistic practice also concerns the age of accelerating digitalization and our interaction with social media. She parallels this reality, this meta-world, in her own work by alluding to the search for security, affirmation, relationships and expectations we foster by doing so. She vividly communicates the human psyche’s need for love, tenderness and harmony as well as the irresistible fascination for evil, horror and destruction.
Batman’s work, presented for the very first time in Germany, can be seen until February 4.
