About the work

The work Peasant Woman is part of ’t Jolle’s “Out of Touch” series of angry letterbox sculptures.

The images have been inspired by DYI letterboxes that are typical for the endless strips of road in the Australian outback. The title “Out of Touch” refers both to the digital gap that separates the countryside from information society - living outdoors often literally means being out of touch - as well as to the reality of political leaders, whom despite the fact that they are chosen to represent the people, are alien to the struggle for survival that the majority of world citizens are in.

At the end of the year 2018, a rise in taxes on petrol prices in France, led to protests in the suburban and rural areas. This battle would later become known as the “yellow jacket” protests.

For me this was the trigger to mould the letterboxes after angry people, who are protesting increasing social un-justice and inequality. Peasant Woman revisits, in letterbox format, the theme of Julio Gonzalez’s eponymous work La Montserrat. It recalls farmers and land worker protests from long gone feudal times. Nothing seems further removed from that reality, than the current state of information technology. However the sheer endless wealth and power that Big Tech has been able to amass, inspires thinkers to coin contemporary societal structures as Tech- or Neo-feudal. Or, to cite an internet meme: Feudalism isn’t perfect, but it’s the best system we have.

-Sven ‘t Jolle

About the artist

SVEN ‘T JOLLE ( b.1966 Antwerp, Belgium) lives and works in Melbourne. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. His practice explores themes of migration, labour and capital. For over twenty years, the artist has been developing a singular body of work combining formal experiment and social critique. He explores the possibilities of figurative contemporary sculpture, from statues to the readymade, from monument to installation. 

In recent years he had  individual exhibitions at Wiels, Centre for contemporary art, Brussels; Le Portique, Contemporary art centre Le Havre, France; Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris; Station gallery Melbourne and Plus One gallery, Antwerp. His work was also recently included in group exhibitions at Lustwarande, Platform for Contemporary Sculpture, Tilburg, the Netherlands; La kunsthalle, Mullhouse, France; Mona, Hobart,  Australia; and FIAC Hors les murs, Jardins des Tuileries, Paris among others.

More work by Sven ‘t Jolle

WEEPING FIGURE, TEARGASS (BOOK 123), 2021