FOCUS MUSÉUM
themselves up to visitors. In a 2006 interview for the BAK in Utrecht, the artist spoke further about his work on community: “I would like […] to give the public an impression of immediacy and accessibility. In doing so, I also want to set up a strange but “shared” framework where the somewhat fragile and vulnerable idea of a “community of absence” can take shape. This concept is taken from Maurice Blanchot’s essay on Marguerite Duras, whose The Malady of Death Yang has directed several times.
Translation, C. Penwarden vol qui s’accroche pendant des semaines à quiconque la frôle, une clé représentant la différence moléculaire entre le Coca-Cola et le Pepsi, des bonbonnes d’air modifié (l’air utilisé pour conserver fruits et légumes sous emballage, ou l’oxygène 18 de la radiopharmacologie, etc.), mais aussi son Cyclooctane/ Octane Cycle, une « séquence en boucle qui diffuse une molécule différente chaque minute, chaque molécule ou étape dans la séquence ayant un parfum distinct ». En somme, Raspet serait une sorte d’Olafur Eliasson de l’odeur et de l’évanescent, dans des mises en scène nettement plus industrielles, cependant. Avec ces Texture Maps, l’artiste passe du côté de la lumière, puisqu’il propose à nouveau un travail sur le décalage entre la matière et la perception, mais sous forme de panneaux de Plexiglas irisés, avec coulures de silicone et films dichroïques, qui changent d’aspect selon la position du visiteur. Ces panneaux tapissent l’intérieur d’un arrêt de bus, permettant une immersion lumineuse à celui qui est dedans, tandis qu’il deviendra lui-même, pour ceux qui l’observent de l’extérieur, une forme abstraite. Avec cette oeuvre, Raspet continue, non sans ironie, sa réflexion sur le discontinu et l’entropie. Before now, Sean Raspet was known for cans filled with synthetic raspberry aroma, a phone call ricocheting endlessly between three handsets throughout the duration of an exhibition, walls covered with special anti-theft DNA paint that sticks to anyone who touches it for weeks, a key representing the molecular difference between Coca-Cola, canisters of the air used for keeping fruits and vegetables in their packaging, oxygen 18 for radiopharmacology, etc.), but also his Cyclooctane/Octane Cycle, a “looped sequence that emits a different molecule every minute, each molecule or phase in the sequence having a distinct perfume.” In sum, Raspet could be seen as a kind of Olafur Eliasson of smells and evanescence, except that his stagings are much more industrial. With these Texture Maps the artist is moving over to light, once again offering work on the discrepancy between material and perception, but in the form of iridescent Plexiglas panels, with drips of silicone and dichroic films, their appearance changing as the visitor moves. These panels line the interior of a bus shelter, creating a luminous, immersive environment for anyone inside, but presenting an abstract form to those observing from outside. With this work Raspet is continuing, not without irony, his reflection on discontinuity and entropy.
Translation, C. Penwarden