Menu surprise

David Bielander,

1 February - 8 March, 2025

MENU SURPRISE

They are huge, muscly things, pale and unnervingly lifelike: cast in Limoges porcelain, a row of ox tongues hangs from black hooks along a steel pipe. Observing them from the floor is a huge python, glinting soft gold. A crown sits to one side - a royal vessel awaiting a worthy head. Visceral and unsettling, the scene is like something from a dream, a frozen moment that feels archaic, potent, but deliciously difficult to pin down.

On a recent residency at Ensad, the National School of Art and Design in Limoges, Bielander immersed himself in the European traditions of slip-cast porcelain to create the new series Ox Tongue (Langue de Bouef Limousine). Not merely for the butcher's shop window, the works are entirely functional kitchen graters and, during the opening event, Bielander demonstrated their use by preparing ginger and turmeric for a communal tea ceremony, inviting viewers to participate in a ritual both intimate and strangely transgressive.

The individual works in this exhibition meet in a way that feels especially cohesive, as if the exhibition is in fact a singular work made to jolt something in our collective subconscious. It is at once archaic and contemporary, disquieting and thoughtful, and invites us to consider the relationships between the body, commerce, power, and the rituals that shape our daily lives.



Ox tongue (Langue de Boeuf Limousine), 2024 , porcelain, steel, photo by Dirk Eisel

Work from Menu surprise

DB by Menu surprise DB, 2024, 'Ox tongue (Langue de Boeuf Limousine)', porcelain, steel
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2024, 'Flat (cardboard bracelet)', patinated silver, white gold
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2025, installation, photo by Fred Kroh
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2024, 'Crown', patinated silver, white gold
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2025, 'Nimmersatt / Insatiable (paper python)', corrugated cardboard (recycled Amazon packaging), gold, gold leaf, paint
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2025, 'Nimmersatt / Insatiable (paper python)', corrugated cardboard (recycled Amazon packaging), gold, gold leaf, paint
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2012, 'Koi' bracelet, thumb tacks, leather, silver
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2021, 'Flower Pot' hat, leather (wet shaped)
DB by Menu surprise DB, 20026, 'May Bugs' brooch, patinated silver, steel pin
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2024, Candle holder, patinated silver, white gold
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2015-2025, 'Crucifix', patinated silver, white gold (new edition of 25)
DB by Menu surprise DB, 2021, 'Goose Neck', found ceramic, mild steel repair (Topfstrickerel)

Artists involved