A collectible publication on Magali Reus' thinking of objecthood (an immersive and highly refined artist's book—three assembled volumes, different types of paper, transparency play on layers—based on three new series by the Dutch artist).
Renowned for her particular take on what contemporary sculpture can be and express, Magali Reus draws on a vast range of formal influences and references, from the domestic to the industrial, the functional to the decorative, creating works that evolve as a fascinating accumulation and layering of visual details.
Designed by Irma Boom, one of the most prestigious graphic designers active today, this artist's book offers a unique approach to art making through the unveiling of the sources, visual imagery, and connections that gave birth to the realization of three emblematic series by Magali Reus: "Dearest," 2018; "Empty Every Night," 2019; and "Settings," 2019–2021. Conceived as a space where the viewer can take their time to get a closer, more intimate connection to her work, the publication alternates views of the works, close–up details, and various materials—from a 3D technical rendering and production calculations to mock ups, samples, and research photography. Sharing her production, process, and research archive, Reus allows the reader to decipher the circulation of motifs from one medium to another, her specific take on the ideas of hierarchy, representation, and systems of production, and how she explores the tensions between nature, technology, and the impact of postindustrial human activity. The book gives full credit to her ongoing thinking on objecthood and how the objects and forms she creates take on a strange, disobedient agency. Made of three separate volumes, featuring different paper and taped together, this collectible publication is itself a powerful object.
Three contributions by art critic and curator Anthony Huberman ("Leather and Logistics"), writer and art historian Philomena Epps ("The Other Hour"), and artist and writer Sean Burns ("A Love Affair") analyze the artist's practice through art historical and literary perspectives.
Born in 1981 in The Hague, London-based artist Magali Reus is one of the most acclaimed new voices in contemporary sculpture. Renowned for her interest in the relationship between mass-produced articles and the human body in the context of today's digital society, Magali Reus draws on a vast range of formal influences and references, from the domestic to the industrial, the functional to decorative, creating pieces that evolve as an accumulation and layering of sculptural details. Taking everyday objects as starting points, her work operates on a visual register as a formal configuration, but also as a choreography of emotional and physical experience. For her, objects like fridges, padlocks, seating, and street curbs are not seen only as facilitators of our everyday actions, but also as physical receptacles for our bodies. She is thus interested in positioning them not only as shells or providers, but as objects imbued with their own sense of personality. Detached from their surroundings and translated into immaculate, abstract forms they become uncanny and perplexing, acquiring a very different life, which is almost theatrical. Colliding the macro logic of daily architecture with the more metaphorical projections of a body inhabiting space, Magali Reus' practice focuses on the physical and psychic space of objecthood.
