Feudal Relief

Superhouse is proud to present Ryan Decker’s first solo exhibition, Feudal Relief. For his show, Decker transforms Superhouse Vitrine into a dungeon-cum-domestic diorama, full of furniture, lighting and objects influenced by a mix of medieval motifs and computer-generated aesthetics. The exhibition takes place May 20 – July 3, 2022 at Superhouse Vitrine

This is the second time the artist has shown with the gallery and represents the continuing focus of Superhouse’s founder and director Stephen Markos on exhibiting cutting edge design that blurs distinction from art and is heavily influenced by technology.

“I am incredibly honored that Ryan entrusted Superhouse as the place where he brings his digital world into reality. The works in the show are well-developed, take on fresh forms, and are unlike anything anyone has ever seen in real life,” says Stephen Markos, adding “Who’s ever heard of a floor lamp in the shape of a thorny vine holding up a stone sarcophagus?”

Visitors to Feudal Relief will find themselves transported to Decker’s version of 14th century Europe. The gallery is covered in digital renderings, giving the appearance of a stone-walled room. Anchoring the space is Decker’s carved and airbrushed wood throne, embellished with cast-bronze critters. There is also a standing CNC-milled wood mirror and monumental printed aluminum floor lamp that defies classification as a functional object (but it is).

In a show full of cutting-edge techniques and unusual materials, Decker experimented with another, more ancient medium: glass. There is a pair of gorgeous, blown glass vessels full of layers of vibrant color as well as cast glass in the artist’s spectacular pendant lamp. Employing yet another technique, Decker used pate de verre to form the glowing blue face of his tour de force floor lamp.

To further blend the real and the virtual, the physical works are accompanied by a video titled A Sedentary Pilgrimage as well as a sound piece by Robovine, a multimedia music and art project comprising Decker and musician Nikolaus Hendry.

Decker was inspired by the ghoulish carvings of Gothic churches and the imaginative drawings in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. Depictions of human-eating demons, anus-showing jesters and snail-riding knights contrasted with the religious contexts in which they were found, highlighting the need then, as now, to cope with oppressive forms of authority. Through these playful and at times challenging works, Decker seeks to shed light on the notion that we are living in a neofeudalist age. In Medieval Europe, feudal relief was a one-off tax payment each generation of tenant paid to a lord in order to remain on the land. It has been equated with an inheritance tax but it essentially perpetuated the political and economic inequality present at the time. For Decker, the term is a triple entendre: relief from a loss of hope through humor and absurdity, the spiritual relief one might feel upon returning to a sacred home after a day’s drudgery, and the literal reliefs present in the works on view.