JASON MARTIN – INFINITIVE
2012-06-04In a daring new work, Martin has dramatically transcended the two-dimensional. On arriving at the gallery, the visitor is confronted by the monumental, matt black, cubed block, Behemoth, measuring 3m x 3m at its base and over 2.6m high. Comprising layer upon layer of stacked virgin cork coated in pure black pigment, the squatting sculpture dominates its setting. The work is impossible to understand in a single perspective and the spectator is forced to negotiate its sides and edges, unable to access its top.
Simultaneously awe inspiring and intimidating, elusive and alluring, Behemoth accesses a shared primal memory: the Kaaba of Mecca, a mausoleum to a long dead dignitary, an
inviolable alchemist’s box. Initially solid and impenetrable, closer inspection reveals the
gnarled, pitted unruly surface of the untreated, pigment-blackened cork, sourced from the area around Martin’s Portuguese studio. Its natural undulations and inconsistencies echo the raw, worked, sculptural surfaces of Martin’s pigments. The form of Behemoth, and its physical presence in the gallery space, echo the theatrical preoccupations of Minimalist
sculpture but the ancient and organic nature of the material conversely alludes to an inherent human narrative that belies these conceptual concerns.
Opposite – Behemoth, 2012
Exhibition runs through to June 23rd, 2012
Lisson Gallery
52-54 Bell Street
London
NW1 5DA
