Micol Assaël
Stone Broken Circuit
16 Dec 2016 - 15 Jan 2017
Micol Assaël
Stone Broken Circuit, 2016
Bakelite, marble
2016, 658 x 718 cm
Position of marble cubes variable, unique
Stone Broken Circuit, 2016
Bakelite, marble
2016, 658 x 718 cm
Position of marble cubes variable, unique
MICOL ASSAËL
Stone Broken Circuit
16 December 2016 – 15 January 2017
In open circuits, current cannot flow because the path is broken, incomplete or interrupted.
In her third solo exhibition at KÖNIG GALERIE, the Italian artist Micol Assaël reproduces the mechanics of those circuits both literal and figurative. Stone Broken Circuit (2016), a new series of works presented in the former chapel of St. Agnes, stands as another iteration of her fascination with the laws of nature, physics, and electromagnetism. Comprised of an installation, sculptural units and a book of drawings, the tripartite show speaks to Assaël’s ongoing interest in making visible the invisible, urging us to reconsider the mechanisms of perception.
Laid out on the floor of the chapel, dark stripes made of Bakelite, a plastic mainly used for its nonconductive properties in early electrical designs, trace the map of an open electrical circuit. Clusters of small irregularly shaped white marble cubes complete the installation and interrupt the broken circuit. Some carefully stacked atop each other, others scattered on the floor seemingly at random, they variously remind the viewer of the orderly chaos of nature, frozen urban landscapes, and playful sugar-cube constructions. Their apparent geometrical order is deconstructed and torn apart so as to turn fallen cubes into dice revealing random results. Three additional sculptures resembling scales rise from the space of the circuit. Wooden blocks and old electrical components are mounted on pipes, while marble cubes challenge the balance of the beam.
Next to a wall, on a window repurposed as a table, stands a book of drawings offering yet another view of broken electrical circuits and lost potentials. The third in an edition of five, this book, bound in the Nobiru Gajo technique, represents wiring diagrams showing incomplete and erroneous circuit schematics from the age of electricity. Delicate ink tracings unfold amid a literal field of tension generated by the two heavy book covers made of magnetic blocks. Between the folds, meticulously drawn on found sheets of paper from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Assaël’s methodical investigation into useless and defective diagrams short-circuits the ideas of linearity, finitude, and functionality.
A closer look at her most recent work brings Mindfall (2007), an immersive installation Assaël exhibited at König, to mind. In an industrial container resembling a factory office, the artist had placed twenty-one discarded motors running low on energy, alternately overstraining in a harmony of noise. The piece prompted the viewer to meditate on the ideas of pointless labor and technical ‘failure,’ a theme she picks up again in Stone Broken Circuit, but now with a quiet and static yet no less powerful assemblage.
By bringing together and playing with conductive and nonconductive materials in such ways, Assaël refers not only to the laws of physics, but also to larger phenomena of connectivity, be it atomic, molecular, personal, social, or semantic. Her practice abstracts the connections we trace and unsettles traditional belief systems in what she describes as an attempt to ‘locate the dark zones of our understanding.’
Micol Assaël was born in Rome in 1979 and currently lives and works in Italy and Greece. She recently presented solo shows at Galleria Zero ... (2015) and Hangar Bicocca (2014), Milan, the Secession, Vienna (2009), Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2009), and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2009). She also contributed to group exhibitions at the American Academy in Rome (2016), the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome (2015), Bozar, Bruxelles (2014), and the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013). Her work was shown in numerous international exhibitions such as the 28th São Paulo Biennial (2008), the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006), Manifesta 5 (2004), and the 50th and 51st Venice Biennales (2003, 2005).
Stone Broken Circuit
16 December 2016 – 15 January 2017
In open circuits, current cannot flow because the path is broken, incomplete or interrupted.
In her third solo exhibition at KÖNIG GALERIE, the Italian artist Micol Assaël reproduces the mechanics of those circuits both literal and figurative. Stone Broken Circuit (2016), a new series of works presented in the former chapel of St. Agnes, stands as another iteration of her fascination with the laws of nature, physics, and electromagnetism. Comprised of an installation, sculptural units and a book of drawings, the tripartite show speaks to Assaël’s ongoing interest in making visible the invisible, urging us to reconsider the mechanisms of perception.
Laid out on the floor of the chapel, dark stripes made of Bakelite, a plastic mainly used for its nonconductive properties in early electrical designs, trace the map of an open electrical circuit. Clusters of small irregularly shaped white marble cubes complete the installation and interrupt the broken circuit. Some carefully stacked atop each other, others scattered on the floor seemingly at random, they variously remind the viewer of the orderly chaos of nature, frozen urban landscapes, and playful sugar-cube constructions. Their apparent geometrical order is deconstructed and torn apart so as to turn fallen cubes into dice revealing random results. Three additional sculptures resembling scales rise from the space of the circuit. Wooden blocks and old electrical components are mounted on pipes, while marble cubes challenge the balance of the beam.
Next to a wall, on a window repurposed as a table, stands a book of drawings offering yet another view of broken electrical circuits and lost potentials. The third in an edition of five, this book, bound in the Nobiru Gajo technique, represents wiring diagrams showing incomplete and erroneous circuit schematics from the age of electricity. Delicate ink tracings unfold amid a literal field of tension generated by the two heavy book covers made of magnetic blocks. Between the folds, meticulously drawn on found sheets of paper from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Assaël’s methodical investigation into useless and defective diagrams short-circuits the ideas of linearity, finitude, and functionality.
A closer look at her most recent work brings Mindfall (2007), an immersive installation Assaël exhibited at König, to mind. In an industrial container resembling a factory office, the artist had placed twenty-one discarded motors running low on energy, alternately overstraining in a harmony of noise. The piece prompted the viewer to meditate on the ideas of pointless labor and technical ‘failure,’ a theme she picks up again in Stone Broken Circuit, but now with a quiet and static yet no less powerful assemblage.
By bringing together and playing with conductive and nonconductive materials in such ways, Assaël refers not only to the laws of physics, but also to larger phenomena of connectivity, be it atomic, molecular, personal, social, or semantic. Her practice abstracts the connections we trace and unsettles traditional belief systems in what she describes as an attempt to ‘locate the dark zones of our understanding.’
Micol Assaël was born in Rome in 1979 and currently lives and works in Italy and Greece. She recently presented solo shows at Galleria Zero ... (2015) and Hangar Bicocca (2014), Milan, the Secession, Vienna (2009), Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2009), and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2009). She also contributed to group exhibitions at the American Academy in Rome (2016), the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome (2015), Bozar, Bruxelles (2014), and the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013). Her work was shown in numerous international exhibitions such as the 28th São Paulo Biennial (2008), the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006), Manifesta 5 (2004), and the 50th and 51st Venice Biennales (2003, 2005).