Aesthetic Tension: Art by Angelika Merkul
Untitled (from Excavations of the Future)
Angelika Markul is a multi-media and installation artist who currently lives and works between France and Poland. Markul’s recent works have focused on a sense of aesthetic tension between bright, clean neon lights and dark, heavy sculptural materials.
Untitled (from Excavations of the Future)
Markul’s recent show exhibition, Excavations of The Future features a number of sculptural objects made in black, waxy material that looks almost like polished volcanic stone. These objects, while at first glance bulbous, abstract masses, often incorporate eerily recognizable elements like the shapes of hands or articles of clothing. Placed in deep frames or on metal tables that have a surgical look to them the objects are bathed in colored light from circles of neon tubing, creating an overall aesthetic that speaks to excavation and dissection.
Similarly, in Horizon, a yellow neon bar casts light into a frame filled with deep, dark-colored in a wall hanging frame, like a fragment of an strange, alien landscape within a gallery space.
Horizon (installation view), wax, dye, neon lamp