LhGWR is very proud to present the exhibition Only Jesus Saves by
Sarah Carlier (1981, BE). For the exhibition Carlier has made ten new video works that will come together in a new site-specific multi-channel video installation. Her residency in the United States and the rapidly changing dynamics in our Western society have a visible impact on the social engagement that characterizes her work.
The narratives in Sarah Carlier’s video works stem from the friction found between our predilection for tradition and the inevitable changes in our modest day-to-day existence. Delving into such substantive matters about life’s meaning and futility, her light approach chimes with the absurdist undertones of contemporary Belgian art. Carlier provokes you to consider our current zeitgeist in which fear of the unknown seems to be a common thread.
Her multi-screen video installations interweave diverging narratives into new forms. Video scenes with underlying cynicism are interchanged with those of light-hearted humour, each serving as a counterpart to put things in perspective, sharpening the work’s focus. Like a visual symphony autonomous video works converge in a larger entity, drawing striking and layered parallels with the rhythms of the everyday.
Sarah Carlier’s work has undergone exceptional developments in recent years. Her eight-channel video installation Let us be cheerful was exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and acquired for their collection. Through MIAP’s acquisition of the same work, the installation is on display for five years in the Amsterdam Medical Centre. Carlier’s works can also be found in multiple private collections. Among others, she has previously exhibited at the Centre for Fine Arts/BOZAR (Brussels), IMPAKT Festival (Utrecht), Photo Ireland (Dublin), Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam), and FOMU (Antwerp).