Marlie Mul

Rob Tufnell presents a series of prints and sculptural works by Marlie Mul.

A series of photo gravure etchings, all titled 'Unnamed (Scalp)' are self-reflexive studies created from documentation of an earlier body of work in production. They could perhaps recall the uncanny experiments of early 20th century Surrealists but are derived instead from images of Mul’s comical collection of silicon sculptures of ‘Sperms Going to a Fashion Show’ (2021). Each of these over-sized gametes bear incongruous hair pieces created by the meticulous application of a multitude of individual nylon strands.

Alongside are a series of more abstract, small sculptural works created from sheets of cast, coloured silicon. These elastic forms are folded and fixed with stainless steel and variously imbued with individual character through the application of artificial hair and plastic bones. These recall Gilles Deleuze’s writings on folds which he described as being where the material and immaterial and the finite and infinite connect: ‘Either it is the fold of the infinite, or the constant folds of finitude which curve the outside and constitute the inside’.

Mul works in a wide variety of media taking up different roles in different contexts. In recent years, alongside her studio practice, she has hosted a series of peripatetic events under the name Hermany (2019 – ongoing) where she hosts or works alongside others. These have included exhibitions, performances, a fashion show and, most recently, a bistro.

Mul (b. 1980) lives and works in Brussels. She held a solo exhibition of her work, ‘Have Your tried Turning It Off and On?’, at Wiels project space, Brussels in 2022. In 2017 Mul cancelled her exhibition at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art as a protest against the institution’s unnavigable bureaucracy (and as an artwork in itself). Other exhibitions include her participation in the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (2019) and the 9th Berlin Biennial (2016). Her work has also been presented at institutions including FRAC Alsace (2024); Flat Time House, London (2022); Macro Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2021); Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2020); FRAC Lorraine, Metz and Mostyn, Llandudno (2018); Kunsthalle Wien (2016); Swiss Institute, New York; Kunsthalle Bern and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2015); Sculpture Center, New York; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; ICA, London; Fridericianum, Kassel and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2014) and White Columns, New York (2011). She studied Fashion and Textile Design, at the Academy for Visual Arts St. Joost, Breda (1998 – 2000); Fine Arts at ABKM Maastricht (2000 – 2003) and Architectural Theory and Critical Thinking at the Architectural Association, London (2008 – 2009).