ardenne nick mauss 13.05.11-14.08.11 dossier de presse
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ardenne nick mauss 13.05.11-14.08.11 dossier de presse
frac champagne-ardenne fonds régional d’art contemporain 1, place museux f-51100 reims t +33 (0)3 26 05 78 32 f +33 (0)3 26 05 13 80 [email protected] www.frac-champagneardenne.org frac champagneardenne dossier de presse nick mauss 13.05.11-14.08.11 frac champagneardenne 1 frac champagne-ardenne fonds régional d’art contemporain 1, place museux f-51100 reims t +33 (0)3 26 05 78 32 f +33 (0)3 26 05 13 80 [email protected] www.frac-champagneardenne.org NICK MAUSS / DISORDER EXPOSITION DU 13 MAI AU 14 AOUT 2011 VERNISSAGE LE JEUDI 12 MAI 2011 A 18H00 communiqué de presse p. 2 dossier d’œuvres p. 4 biographie p. 11 bibliographie p. 13 sélection d’articles de presse p. 15 2 JULIEN CARREYN / LYOT - NICK MAUSS / DISORDER EXPOSITION DU 13 MAI AU 14 AOUT 2011 VERNISSAGE LE JEUDI 12 MAI 2011 A 18H00 Commissaire des expositions : Florence Derieux visite privée pour les amis du frac champagne-ardenne : lundi 16 mai à 19h00 visites publiques : tous les dimanches à 16h00 visite pour les enseignants : mercredi 18 mai à 14h30 visite pour les étudiants : jeudi 26 mai à 18h30 nuit européenne des musées : samedi 14 mai de 20h00 à minuit Le FRAC Champagne-Ardenne présente simultanément deux expositions personnelles, l'une consacrée à l'artiste français Julien Carreyn (né en 1973 ; vit et travaille à Paris) et l'autre à l'artiste allemano-américain Nick Mauss (né en 1980 ; vit et travaille à New York). À l’instar des œuvres mystérieuses du symboliste belge Fernand Khnopff – compositions peuplées de femmes hiératiques, inaccessibles et au regard trouble, ou paysages renvoyant au monde du rêve –, les images de Julien Carreyn (né en 1973 à Angers ; vit et travaille à Paris) évoquent un passé disparu, englouti dans le vague des souvenirs. L’artiste photographie des modèles qu’il fait poser dans des intérieurs saturés d’objets à haute valeur culturelle et symbolique. S’en suit un long travail d’atelier solitaire et minutieux pour faire naître, par le biais de techniques d’impression obsolètes, des dessins et des photographies qui sont ensuite assemblés en séries et disposés sous vitrine tels des vestiges culturels. Nick Mauss (né en 1980 à New York ; vit et travaille à New York) utilise l’accumulation – d’idées, de souvenirs, d’influences – comme une technique, et développe une approche artistique à la fois mécanique, poétique, onirique et presque incantatoire. S’il considère ses œuvres sur papier et celles qu’il nomme des « dessins amplifiés » (ses sculptures, peintures, vidéos et installations) comme autant d’éléments d’un vocabulaire en développement, résolument ancrés dans le présent, celles-ci sont le plus souvent perçues comme issues d’un passé dont on ne sait s’il doit être éradiqué ou devenir source d’émulation. Il appréhende le lieu d’exposition, qui est traité comme un objet oscillant entre l’espace mental, émotionnel, sensuel, historique et artistique, comme une page blanche à partir de laquelle est construit un dessin. Julien Carreyn et Nick Mauss partagent un même désir d’imaginaire et d’esthétisme. Particulièrement intéressés par des techniques de reproduction anciennes et/ou rudimentaires, tous deux ont choisi de privilégier le dessin en tant que processus créatif pour tenter de créer un nouveau langage. Boulimiques et érudits, c’est par la fusion de références multiples qu’ils produisent des œuvres à l’aspect faussement désuet, mêlant l’abstraction à la figuration, associant un certain réalisme fragmenté aux images subconscientes et aux rêves, et ayant la particularité de rester parfaitement ouvertes. Julien Carreyn a notamment participé à des expositions à la Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard à Paris (Une Expédition, commissariat de Stéphane Calais, 2009), au Mac/Val de Vitry-sur-Seine (collection du FRAC Ile-deFrance, 2008) et au CNEAI de Chatou (Salons boudoirs et antichambres, 2002). Il a publié plusieurs livres d’artistes, dont Les Demoiselles de 3 Vienne en collaboration avec Pierre La Police (Editions Cornélius, Paris, 2008). Julien Carreyn est représenté par la Galerie Crèvecœur à Paris. Le travail de Nick Mauss a notamment été présenté au Künstlerhaus de Stuttgart, à la Kunsthalle Basel (Strange Comfort (Afforded by the Profession), 2010), à P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center à New York (expositions Greater New York et The Baghdad Batteries, 2010), à la Halle für Kunst de Luneburg (Provence « O », 2010), à la Kunsthalle de Zurich (Non-Solo Show, Non-Group Show, 2009) et au MoMA - Museum of Modern Art de New York (Contemporary Drawings Collection, 2009). Il est représenté par Galerie Neu à Berlin et 303 Gallery à New York. Avec le soutien de Champagne Taittinger le frac champagne-ardenne reçoit le soutien du conseil régional de champagne-ardenne, du ministère de la culture et de la communication et de la ville de reims. il est membre du art center social club et du réseau platform. 4 Printed 2010 Chaises en bois, peinture 84 x 84 x 86 cm Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims 5 Concrete 2010 Feuille d’argent sur panneau 50 x 40 cm Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims 6 Feuilles volantes 2010 Sérigraphie sur bois 109 x 66 cm Collection FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims 7 Living Sign 2010 Impression jet d’encre, colle, bois, papier, peinture, panneau synthétique 91,44 x 35,56 x 20,32 cm Courtesy Galerie Neu, Berlin 8 Copy of a dream on film 2009 Pastel, peinture aérosole, encre sur papier 65 x 52 cm (encadré) Courtesy Galerie Neu, Berlin 9 Interval 2009 Matériaux divers Env. 77 x 39 x 66 cm Courtesy Galerie Neu, Berlin 10 Sans titre 2008 Matériaux divers sur papier 62 x 54 cm (encadré) Courtesy Galerie Neu, Berlin 11 NICK MAUSS Né en 1980 à New York. Vit et travaille à New York. FORMATION 2003 B.F.A., The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES 2010 Galerie Neu, Berlin Galleria Il Capricorno, Venise 2009 303 Gallery, New York 2008 Have meant, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo 2007 A Fair to Meddling Story, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart Lymph Est, Galerie Neu, Berlin One Season in Hell, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York 2005 Daniel Reich Gallery, New York 2003 Magnetic Living, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York EXPOSITIONS COLLECTIVES 2010 Strange Comfort (Afforded by the Profession), Kunsthalle Basel, Bâle Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center The Baghdad Batteries, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Provence O, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg Surviving H1N1, Contemporary by Golconda, Tel Aviv Ne Vivre Jamais, Elgarafi, Berlin Broadway 1602, New York 2009 Non-Solo Show, Non-Group Show, Kunsthalle, Zurich Never on Sunday, Tbilisi6, Tbilisi, Georgia Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York Dreaming the Mainstream, Vilma Gold, London modern modern, Chelsea Art Museum, New York Quodlibet II, Galerie Daniel Bucholz, Cologne 12 2008 One Season in Hell, MD72, Berlin Not so subtle subtitle, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York Some Neighbors, Kunstverein München, Munich Sunset, Magasin, Grenoble Review, Galerie Neu, Berlin Were, there, severe (thin line), Galeria Alessandro de March, Milan Nostalgia Isnt What It Used To Be, O’Hara, La MaMa E.T.C., New York 2007 Exposition N° 1, Balice/Hertling, Paris 2006 When Artists Say We, Artist's Space, New York All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go, Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow Between the Lines (organize par Nick Mauss), Hotel Chelsea, New York 2005 Words: The Formal Presence of Text in Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York Nick Mauss & Elizabeth Peyton, Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, Easthampton, New York Exile: New York is a Good Hotel, Broadway 1602, New York 2004 Home, American Fine Arts Co., Colin de Land Fine Art, New York Happy Days Are Here Again, David Zwirner Gallery, New York Nowojorskie Porno, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw The New Romantics, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York Its About Memory, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago 2003 my people were fair and had cum in their hair, Team Gallery, New York Now Playing, DAmelio Terras, New York Todays Man, John Connelly Presents, New York Karaoke Death Machine, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York Memory of a Free Festival (Marisha Farnsworth, Shelby Hughes, Alpha Lubicz, Nick Mauss), Houghton Gallery, Cooper Union School of Art, New York 2001 Sharing Horizons That Are New to Us, Houghton Gallery, Cooper Union School of Art, New York Coal By Any Other Name: The Journey Towards The Good Taste, American Fine Arts Co., Colin de Land Fine Art, New York LIVRES D’ARTISTE 2010 Geschenkpapiere, Koenig Books Ltd., Londres 2008 Ken Okiishi, A Fair to Meddling Story, JRP Ringier, Zurich 13 2007 Ken Okiishii, One Season in Hell, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York Lucy McKenzie, Ken Okiishi et Paulina Olowska, “K/L/M/N/O/P - A Conversation via E-mail”, Noël sur le balcon/HOLD THE COLOR, Sammlung Goetz, Munich, p. 64-112 2005 Elizabeth Peyton, Nick Mauss and Elizabeth Peyton, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, New York BIBLIOGRAPHIE 2010 Holland Cotter, “Bloodflames III”, The New York Times, 29 octobre, p. 28 David Lewis, “Non-Solo Show, Non-Group Show”, Artforum, n°8, avril, p.211-212 Steve Pulimood, Art in America, 2 mai, p.116 Simon Baier, “Einsamkeit ist keine Kunst.”, n°77, mars Nick Mauss & Nikolas Gambaroff, “…and at Some Point the Painting Starts Again…”, Mousse Magazine, mars Nick Mauss & Ken Okiishi, “Depuis”, Provence Dan Fox, “Nick Maus Drawings and anachronisms; books, prototype designs and romanticism”, Frieze, n°133, septembre, p. 116-117 2009 Dominic Eichler, “How Do These Things Touch Each Other?” Mousse Magazine, n°20, septembre-octobre, p. 41-45 Joseph R. Wolin, “Ken Okiishi/Nick Maus,” Modern Painters, décembrejanvier Nick Mauss, “The Poem Will Ressemble You”, Artforum, n°9, mai, p. 184190 2008 Kristy Bell, Frieze, n°112, janvier-février Joseph R. Wolin, “Feature”, Modern Painters, décembre-janvier Nick Mauss, Ken Okiishi, “Top Ten”, Artforum, n°7, mars, p. 165-166 Kristin Jones M., "Not So Subtle Subtitle”, Frieze, n°118, octobre Nick Mauss, “Abandoned Painting: The Art of Jochen Klein”, Artforum, octobre 2007 Marko Sacher, "Ausstellung als Schnitzeljagd," Stuttgarter Nachrichten, septembre Dietholf Zerweck, "Realität mit Fragezeichen”, Esslinger Zeitung, 19 octobre Raimar Stange, "Da(n)dy Cool”, Spike, n°14, hiver kbm, "Für einen Moment der vergeht”, tip Magazin, n°20, 20 septembre3 octobre 2006 Linda Yablonsky, "Slides and Prejudice”, ARTnews, avril Holland Cotter,"Between the Lines”, The New York Times, 24 mars 14 Roberta Smith,"Who Needs a White Cube These Days?," The New York Times, 13 janvier 2005 Nick Mauss, "The Artist's Artists: Ei Arakawa, RIOT THE BAR", Artforum, décembre Holland Cotter, "Mind of a Writer, Hand of an Artist," The New York Times, 28 octobre 2004 Elizabeth Schambelan, “Works on Paper”, Artforum, 14 février “Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Ken Okiishi & Nick Mauss,” Dune (Tokyo) , n° 28 Benjamin Genocchio, “Modern is Offered Trove of Drawings,” The New York Times, 21 septembre “Happenings: Home Economics,” New York Magazine, 9 août Roberta Smith, “Emerging Talent, And Plenty of It,” The New York Times, 12 mars Michael Wilson, “Nick Mauss and Shelby Hughes / Christian Holstad,” Artforum, mars Staniszewski, Jancek. “W Drgawkach Lambady,” Fluid, n°38 Glueck, Grace. “The New Romantics”, The New York Times “Mlodzi nowojorczycy w Warszawie”, Gazeta Wyborrcza (National Edition), 24-25 janvier “Nowojorskie prono,” Gazeta Wyborcza (Co Jest Grane), 23 janvier Holland Cotter, “Sampling Brooklyn, Where Eclectic Flames Continue to Flicker,” The New York Times, 23 janvier Benjamin Genocchio, “How an Art Scene Became a Youthscape,” The New YorkTimes, 23 janvier 2003 Linda Yablonsky, “Nick Mauss, Shelby Hughes and Christian Holstad,” Daniel Reich Gallery, Time Out New York, 11 décembre Kim Levin, “Magnetic Living: Daniel Reich Gallery,” The Village Voice, 10 décembre Domenick Ammirati, “Now Playing,” Art US, novembre-décembre Holland Cotter, “By and About Men, and Theyre Running With It,” The New York Times, 8 août Susan Carpenter, “The Scope L.A. Festival Trains its Gaze on the Cutting Edge,” The Los Angeles Times, 17 juillet Linda Yablonsky,.“Rock’ n Roll Hall of Fame,” Art Review, juillet Lina Dzuverovic-Russell, “New York: Daniel Reich Gallery: Karaoke Death Machine,” Contemporary, juillet Michael Kimmelman, “Now Playing,” The New York Times, 18 juillet Maika Pollack, “Karaoke Death Machine at Daniel Reich,” Flash Art, maijuin David Rimanelli, “Karaoke Death Machine at Daniel Reich,” Artforum, été Ken Johnson, “Karaoke Death Machine,” The New York Times, 2 mai 15 Dan Fox, “Nick Maus Drawings and anachronisms; books, prototype designs and romanticism”, Frieze, n°133, septembre 2010, p. 16-17. 16 17 18 Steve Pulimood, Art in America, 2 mai 2010, p.116 By Steve Pulimood New York In 2005, Nick Mauss (b. 1980) was catapulted into the permanent collection of MoMA with its acquisition of over 40 drawings by him, part of the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift. They are early works, dating to 2003-04, mostly executed on marbled paper, and represent prodigious flights of youthful fancy. Colors explode and dissolve free of the restraint of form, flourishing with Kandinsky-like exuberance. Mauss’s latest work, in marked contrast, is an exercise in finding visual expression for silence. In addition to a new series of small silver paintings on panel, his installation at 303 included three large-scale works—Pavilion, Insert and Occasion—each a paragon of fragile strength. For example, Insert stands 9 feet tall and 10 feet wide, and is composed of a simple rectilinear white wood structure supporting a giant sheet of white paper through which an irregular shape has been torn, as though someone had walked through it. 19 Mauss began the large group of silver paintings (all 2009) that were the core of the recent exhibition after an intense period of drawing, and they are finely balanced between the two mediums. He casts the humble line as the solitary actor, confronting the representational capacity of painting in much the same way that Jasper Johns does with unmediated gray. But Mauss’s silver panels are less paintings about paintings than are Johns’s, and are more elemental in their studies of light and dark. Working with a severely restricted palette, Mauss manages to convey everything from utter flatness to convincing depth, from nebulousness to palpable forms such as the central vertical figure in figure in a loom. Before laying down the aluminum leaf that doubles for silver and resists tarnishing, Mauss covers the wooden panels with a black acrylic ground. Using a range of techniques, from rubbing and rasping to stenciling, he creates palimpsests in which each mark is recorded, lost and reinscribed. In their simplicity, the silver paintings are reminiscent of those children’s plastic tablets on which one can record a thought or a drawing and just as easily erase it. At the same time, their shiny surfaces prompt the viewer to look from multiple angles, as if staring at the dance of light on moving water. Mauss’s delicacy recalls a similar quality in the work of Paul Klee, who so often conveyed a sense of pleasure in creation. Photo: Nick Mauss: silent adjustments, 2009, mixed mediums on panel, 193⁄4 by 153⁄4 inches; at 303. 20 Dominic Eichler, “How Do These Things Touch Each Other?” Mousse Magazine, n°20, septembre-octobre 2009, p. 41-45. 21 Ken Okiishi & Nick Mauss, One Season in Hell, 2006/2007 courtesy: Galerie Neu, Berlin. When we try to visualize an idea, its borders inevitably seem hazy. Translated into form, this could suggest images composed of light traces, undulating lines, blurred brushstrokes. In the works on paper by Nick Mauss, every mark is a citation. This New York artist, born in 1980, invites us to visualize the world of his imagination, made up of stylized memories. • • &%& $ ! # $" $ " $ " !$ 22 ! "% " $& !"("!$ %( (!$ ("%! $" "%!" $ % !& !% & !$ #"$!! !"$ !!!% & "$ " & % ""!' !"! $ "$!! !% &! ! " !$"% !! !" "& !$ "(!%"(& $$ "("$ !"% "!" "! $! %(!"% $"! &$& !"$"!% 23 ##"*+) #,& !# (*"" ** ("#"& (#*#& "##"# #$( #) & #! ( #! ") (!#( #" " ("#* # ( % & &0//1-0//2 #' #' &( ## !! ) () !((( &# )!& & #!("""" & ""&! !&&(*!"# # "&"# # !" #" #".!"&# !""( """ 24 !#"$"! ,#"%!" "" !"! #"""!#""#"'# "# , !"$% $! "!"$ !"'# $%" '# !.$% !"'# % * "'!"'# !! "' "" "!"/!!! !#".!#!"!"# $," !""#"'% '%!#", "#""'!!!" "" %!"!" '$# * '!"*%"""!!" " %#$%#"!!!$,"!"!*#"%!$ "-!!!""!" #"!""!" #" !* "$% !, !'# % "#"%"""0 " #1*%!#"# $ !, &"*" '"!!"( "! "$% *"!!#!,!"#"% "$% !!""$% " ","/!"%'!$"#!% /!% *"""%" " '!" , "'# !"!!"! !% %" "' #" !"!"" , "", !) #!!* *433524336 # "!'+# "!'+ #* , 25 #$%# !* &#( #(' '$ $$%%%*#& $&%$&% ' )!% %%-$,%#0$ '#. # #%% '%$'#* !, # '!% &%-$ %%0$#. %#% % #% #"&%. -&%%%$%(% % #&$%#% - ! !%%%$#. #$! $! $% - ! !% %$ (- &%(%$ ! !%%(%% &$/3&$4*( #'#*%$ . %%,%%%0$ ' &$-%%#* % $$ #% (%$ %%% ! $$%*%%%$&$% ##$ $0%)$%,$ %%'#*%$&. %%#- &%%%$%%#% #)! %(#%$ % 2$ $&$ #$###&*. $0$ "& #%3$!, 6:984#)%#*! #%%% * &- # )!,* &#( #$)% %%$ %% #*%% #, #&$ "& %$- % %$ '$&+% (%!!$(#-* &$%#% % )% #%!$$$* &$%#%% %% $&#%% %. % !,(%* &0#%(%%# #&$%%$&#$ #%$$% %# ! %$$%)%-0'$%#% % % &% (% !!*%$ %1% $!$,%$%. % #($!!#.$&!%&#$ %&7559,(#%$%%!. !! %*#((#% % %$!#% %$%$-%!!$%$$&!. %&#$, #(*%$)%,$ (%$ %$% & %#- #(*#%* )%% %#/ #(*#%*$ #% &# %#/#$% (. (#$$ #'% %&#'- 26 !$# !$#$ (!! -0//1.& "## !#&)*' +##& &! "# !)#& #, !& ' & ' #$ !#! &%#!"' #(% #!# #)!$ !& 27 Nick Mauss, “Abandoned Painting”, Artforum, n°2, octobre 2008, p. 356361. Nick Mauss, Ken Okiishi, “Top Ten”, Artforum, n°7, mars 2008, p. 165166. Kristy Bell, Frieze, n°112, janvier-février 2008. Kristy Bell, Frieze, n°112, janvier-février Kristy Bell, “Nick Mauss“, Frieze, n°112, janvier-février 2008. 28 Kristy Bell, « Nick M auss », Frieze, n°112, janvier-février 2008. Nick Mauss Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany ‘Lymph Est’, the first solo show in Berlin of recent work by New York artist Nick Mauss, brought a broadening of scope and scale to the intricate, allusive drawings and paintings first shown in New York some four or five years ago, with their swirling marbled surfaces like vintage endpapers and graphic renderings of turn-of-the-century cultural dandies. Here the seduction factor was turned down a notch or two in favour of an expansion of the white space between pictorial fragments, but the framed works on paper and delicate new sculptures in this exhibition still reeked of another time. Any number of media may occur within the works on paper; a tissue of watercolour, acrylic, pastel or pencil marks accumulates, suggesting a time of ornate skirting boards and picture frame mouldings, curving banisters and lampposts, black frock coats, white dress shirts and earnest conversation. Claude Debussy is here, as is George Sand, but more often than not the period is conveyed in passing by a jumble of details set adrift amid white expanses, on sheets of paper that are considerably larger than in previous works. While this hasn’t led to a change in the scale of the motifs themselves, they pool together, rising like bits of debris to the surface. Sometimes they remain half-submerged: all we can make out is an undulating line, shadowy brushstrokes that suggest a face or a halfformed letter, but it is nonetheless clear that every mark here is a quotation. They may turn up again across the room in another work or be repeated within one drawing. Frame-like devices come up repeatedly and, often incomplete, suggest a tentative relationship between the marks and their paper support, an awareness of centuries’ worth of other such marks – drawings, words, photographs – on similar paper supports. ‘I work to put the formation of my sensibility and a trail of influences in the foreground’, Mauss has said. But where does this trail lead? His borrowed fragments do not fuse together to form a new whole; they remain independent and mute. The effect is like Cathy Wilkes’ elaborate sculptural arrangements, which almost dissolve in attempts to decipher them, or Wade Guyton’s paintings, where aesthetic effects are blamed on random technical accident and the artist’s self-conscious neutrality constructs a distance from the historical images he borrows. Mauss’ sculptures are materially a mere side-step away from his works on paper, but they not only open up another physical dimension but also enable a conceptual expansion, smartly transforming an elegant drawings 29 show into something less definable. Large, flimsy sheets of aluminium, silk-screened with a convincingly grey-white ‘paper’ colour and appended with fragmented line drawings or photographic images, are propped up against the wall, roughly folded to stand upright, lie on the floor or are cut and their corners folded over to reveal more imagery printed on the reverse. They behave like paper, and their insubstantiality echoes the drawings’ pictorial fragility, but more important is the subtle move away from the walls they enact. Although their threedimensionality is almost notional, they pick up on the interior spaces represented in the drawings, of staircases or corners, more stage sets than the solid Parisian drawing-rooms they picture, to suggest a theatrical space for the staging of recollection. On one of the sculptures, lying on the floor, a textual fragment is printed: the first line, printed on the reverse of the aluminium, has been cut around and folded over like a book page to reveal the words – a thin strip undulating like the drawings’ many loose lines. The text is taken from a short story by early 20th-century British writer Denton Welch and refers to the exhibition’s obscure title: ‘I cannot, of course, explain what the words mean. They just came to me one day, and I repeated them over and over again, until they turned into an incantation.’ Of course, we apply this quote to Mauss’ own work: a dream-like, incantatory, mechanistic approach to art-making where ideas, memories, influences float inadvertently to the surface. An unusually messy drawing hanging nearby, seemingly dragged straight from the studio floor, substantiates this. Brushstrokes try out different paint colours; a schematic scene is repeated upside down; a pencil staircase leads nowhere. By playing the daydreamer, a doodler afflicted with a dandyish ennui, Mauss assumes a detachment from the decisions that occur within his work. A calculated vagueness is at play. In this way his role is as theatrical and selfconsciously ‘framed’ as the works’ imagery. Their plucked references call on history to provide a backdrop for an artistic practice now, while the white void in which they float conveys the temporal breach of their impossible cross-century straddle. Kirsty Bell