MAXIME CHABAL
- PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE
- GHOST IMAGE
- ALTER_ATION
-
DE PROFUNDIS
- DOUBLE EXPOSURE
- CORE (CsO)
- SOLEIL DE PLOMB
- UN CHANT D’AMOUR
-
UNTITLED (After Grünewald)
- HARDBEAT
Galvanized steel, UV-Print on glass, lead, 2023
Maxime Chabal’s work is based on an intensive examination of the intellectual and scientific paradigm shift triggered by the invention of X-rays. The first published X-ray image of a hand abruptly changed thinking in 1895. The realization that seemingly opaque objects carry transparency as an inherent property led to a radical rethinking of bodies, architectures, and the notion of visible and invisible in general. Using steel, glass, and lead as materials, Chabal operates with the ambivalence of transparency and opacity, intimacy and rejection. The sculptural body is pierced and cut in several places, screwed into clamps and sealed with lead flaps. Any potential opening of the sculpture denies the view inside. At the same time, the object’s low installation height puts it in immediate communication with the surrounding bodies of visitors. The sculpture is complemented by a UV print of the first published X-ray on glass, behind which the excerpt of a poem can be read as a double play with transparency.
Text by Tobias Peper