One could find everything needed to live—or at least survive—in Joep van Lieshout’s recent exhibition. The artist had filled the museum’s oblong space with a long series of objects that incorporated various household items, including everything from kitchen appliances (even one intended to be used in pig-butchering, along with dried sausages) to a water closet.

At first glance, one might assume that van Lieshout’s new works are merely symptoms of the current vogue for “furniture art.” His counters, bathtubs, and cabinets, his built-in sleep and work stations, are at once aestheticized and