VINCENT FECTEAU
2018-07-16Five sculptures made from painted papier-mâché in a process developed by the artist over the last two decades are included in the exhibition. As Fecteau has described it, “There are forms or curves that I can only imagine making out of papier-mâché. It’s amazingly flexible and endlessly additive and reductive.” Arranged on pedestals, the sculptures include some of the artist’s largest works to date, yet they retain the uncertain sense of scale that is a central component of his art: “I long for the form that exists free of so-called understanding and that operates in a purely abstract, maybe unconscious way. Yet this utopian desire hinges on an idea of abstraction that not only might be impossible but, in the end,
might even be undesirable.”
The collages are installed on the wall. They combine images (clippings from architecture magazines, photographs by the artist) with materials such as cardboard and found pieces of wood or rope to create shallow reliefs. The effect is often an ambiguous sense of depth and an oscillation between abstract and domestic space. Like his sculptures, they admire the notion of the impossible: “I’ve often fantasized about making a form that would be so incomprehensible that it couldn’t be seen.”
Opposite – Untitled, 2014
Exhibition runs through to September 29th, 2018
Matthew Marks Gallery
1062 North Orange Grove
90046 Los Angeles
USA
