Untitled

“This work arose from Mullican’s preoccupation with urban space and the creation of virtual cities and worlds. Mullican works with the symbols and old concepts that were used in the explanation of the world. The five parts of this work resemble archive boxes or type cases, which address the reduced character of virtual models. The containers could, however, also make us think of industrial complexes. They point to the loss of old concepts of the world and build on the creation of utopian ideals that remain valid for all time.” Teresa Lošonc

cellule No. 5
Absalon’s best known works, the Cellules, rewrite Cezanne’s “treat nature as the cylinder, the sphere and the cone” to read “treat architecture as the cell, the bunker and the turret.” Not that the Cellules are straightforwardly architecture: they equally evoke Minimalist sculpture, Matt Mullican’s maquettes, Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbauen and the Concrete sculptures of George Vantongerloo. But the model that the Cellules most overtly evoke is the monastic cell. The Cellules were fabricated in wood, cardboard and plaster, and painted entirely white; their average proportions are roughly those of a caravan, and the catalogue informs us that there is always an area in which one can stand up. Their interiors are fitted–fitted rather than furnished–with unobtrusive minimal representations of desks, seats, beds, etc.