Magali Reus - Hot Cottons - As mist, description

This publication accompanies two exhibitions of recent sculptural work by the artist Magali Reus: Hot Cottons (2017-18) at Bergen Kunsthall and As mist, description, (2018) at the South London Gallery. Featuring an essay by writer and curator Laura Mclean-Ferris and a poetic response by writer and poet Quinn Latimer as well as a fully illustrated overview of Reus’s work, this catalogue provides an in-depth exploration of the artist’s recent sculptural practice.

Producing a sculptural language that is both familiar yet unlocatable Reus draws heavily on the past and present landscape of industry and fabrication, creating forms using a plethora of materials that include: mesh, jesmonite, cotton, steel, rubber, leather. Interested in collaborative processes of making, from virtual design to handmade fabrication, Reus combines sculptural games with material explorations. Everyday materials are transformed with powder blues, pastel greens, and dirty beiges. Reus’s sculptures appear in a state of transition, in progress, mid-function, restored, or destroyed. Autographs of famous athletes, graphics from an iconic Norwegian matchbox, forms reminiscent of fire extinguishers, decorative ironwork, or modular frameworks, all feature in Reus’s sculptures transforming defined materials into newly undefinable objects. Working with factories in Holland to develop specific fabrics, using complex molding and weaving techniques, all the while drawing on the language of digital design Reus navigates the contemporary post-industrial moment with playful unease, creating objects with familiar yet fluid identities.

Copublished with Bergen Kunsthall, South London Gallery