After Easter: Jef Geys in our window
© Jef Geys
Starting Easter 2025, our window becomes a stage for the sharp, strange world of Jef Geys (1934–2018), a man who appreciates – much like ourselves – that food, desire, and culture are never separate things, and never innocent either.
In the mid-1960s, Jef Geys created a series of photographs entitled Fruitlingerie, in which he dressed various fruits and vegetables in suggestive lingerie. This humorous work critiques the objectification of women in mass media by playfully transforming organic forms into eroticized objects. Underpants and bras were filled with zucchinis, carrots, or parsnips, including phallic forms into the photographs.
Beyond its satire of desire and commodification, Fruitlingerie also highlights the absurd ways in which basic human nourishment is marketed. The simple act of dressing up fruit in women’s underwear mobilizes multiple connotations, from the latent eroticism of organic shapes to a commentary on how society projects meaning onto everyday objects. Through this blend of humor and provocation, the work invites viewers to reconsider the intersections of gender, consumption, and visual culture.
In What Are We Having for Dinner Tonight?, Jef Geys asked nine families living in the postwar residential areas of Rotterdam’s Alexanderpolder to contribute to his exhibition at what was back then Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in 1993. He provided the residents with several media channels to comment on their environment, allowing them to share their own perspectives on the area they inhabit. One of these channels was a live broadcast: over the course of the seven-week exhibition, each evening from Monday to Saturday, one of the nine participating families was shown live at dinner on local television from 6:40 to 7:00 pm.
We’re very grateful to Düsseldorf’s Galerie Max Mayer for letting us showcase Jef Geys’ works at Nobelhart.
Jef Geys, Fruitlingerie, black and white photography/Schwarzweißfotografie, Courtesy KAZINI – Jef Geys Estate and/und Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf / Berlin
Jef Geys, What Are We Having for Dinner Tonight? (Wat eten wij vandaag?), Nr. 14, fam. De Bruin, 1993, Video, 17:45 Min. Courtesy KAZINI – Jef Geys Estate and/und Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf / Berlin
After Easter: Jef Geys in our window
Starting Easter 2025, our window becomes a stage for the sharp, strange world of Jef Geys (1934–2018), a man who appreciates – much like ourselves – that food, desire, and culture are never separate things, and never innocent either.
In the mid-1960s, Jef Geys created a series of photographs entitled Fruitlingerie, in which he dressed various fruits and vegetables in suggestive lingerie. This humorous work critiques the objectification of women in mass media by playfully transforming organic forms into eroticized objects. Underpants and bras were filled with zucchinis, carrots, or parsnips, including phallic forms into the photographs.
Beyond its satire of desire and commodification, Fruitlingerie also highlights the absurd ways in which basic human nourishment is marketed. The simple act of dressing up fruit in women’s underwear mobilizes multiple connotations, from the latent eroticism of organic shapes to a commentary on how society projects meaning onto everyday objects. Through this blend of humor and provocation, the work invites viewers to reconsider the intersections of gender, consumption, and visual culture.
In What Are We Having for Dinner Tonight?, Jef Geys asked nine families living in the postwar residential areas of Rotterdam’s Alexanderpolder to contribute to his exhibition at what was back then Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in 1993. He provided the residents with several media channels to comment on their environment, allowing them to share their own perspectives on the area they inhabit. One of these channels was a live broadcast: over the course of the seven-week exhibition, each evening from Monday to Saturday, one of the nine participating families was shown live at dinner on local television from 6:40 to 7:00 pm.
We’re very grateful to Düsseldorf’s Galerie Max Mayer for letting us showcase Jef Geys’ works at Nobelhart.
Jef Geys, Fruitlingerie, black and white photography/Schwarzweißfotografie, Courtesy KAZINI – Jef Geys Estate and/und Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf / Berlin
Jef Geys, What Are We Having for Dinner Tonight? (Wat eten wij vandaag?), Nr. 14, fam. De Bruin, 1993, Video, 17:45 Min. Courtesy KAZINI – Jef Geys Estate and/und Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf / Berlin