Mathieu Mercier

Mathieu Mercier employs common household and industrial materials to create his sculptural, photographic and wall-based works, which explore the relationship between those contemporary mass-produced consumer objects and their aesthetic origins in early-twentieth-century art and design. One series of sculptures, titled "Drum and Bass," recreates classic Mondrian compositions out of black DIY shelving and primary-colored household objects--plastic bins, extension cables and stationery folders. In "Plastic Anchors Wall, " Mercier again traces the use of primary colors from early Modernist art to their function as color-coding for differently sized screw anchors. This dialogue between utopian art and design icons and contemporary mass-produced objects highlights the evolution of the meaning of "modernity" from social project, in utopian movements such as De Stijl and Russian Constructivism, to capital gain.