Mathieu Mercier

In his second solo exhibition at this gallery, French artist Mathieu Mercier plays again with quotidian objects—or, more precisely, with the image and use of his chosen objects. The artist describes his sculptures as “synthesized images,” thereby revealing the process of reflection, association, superimposition, quotation, and mystification of the various codes tied to the object and to its representation: shape, color, design, function, and context. In his new works, he engages images that have been universally reduced to clichés: sunsets, men’s white shirts, and the dry leaves of autumn. A sun-drenched landscape is illustrated in three pictorial works on the walls, which seem to quote and ironically treat the traditional—but trivialized and extremely sad—photographs from posters that immortalize black silhouettes against unnatural skies dominated by saturated yellow and orange hues. The paradox of these romantic images is further confirmed by two sculptures that have great impact. Untitled, 2007, comprises tubular chrome painted blue and black, with circular fragments that seem broken off and reference the aesthetic of ancient ruins.

Framed on the walls in the next room is a series of four sheets of paper that Mercier painted green and pierced in various ways with an ordinary hole-punch. These works evoke the gradual decay of trees shedding autumn leaves. At the center of the gallery, transparent cases contain five small geometric sculptures that are covered in the white cloth that is used to make men’s oxford shirts, including the traditional cuff and a button. Here, too, it is the material that transforms the image. This classic shirt, the uniform of white-collar workers, is transformed into art, revealing, at least, its limits of aesthetic credibility.

Translated from Italian by Marguerite Shore.