Letraset (adhesive vinyl), 35 mm, slide, slide viewer, base
Work acquired in 2019

 

Born 1968 in Pakistan, a graduate from Goldsmiths College of London, Ceal Floyer currently lives and works in Berlin. She is represented by the following galleries: Lisson Gallery (London), Esther Schipper (Berlin) and 303 Gallery (New York).


If Ceal Floyer’s works take varied forms – sound pieces, drawings, found objects, sculptures – they are all characterized by a deliberate economy of means and an obvious sobriety. Rooted in simple and everyday situations and images, they seem to constantly open up to a place that is beyond the appearance and to suggest the existence of an elsewhere. Therefore, a chink of light under a door (Door, 1995) hints at the presence of a hidden dimension. The visitor discovers, by drawing closer to the installation that this effect is created by a slide projector placed at ground level behind the door. The apparatus is not carefully concealed and the keys of the illusion are revealed to the spectator. The artist revisits, with humour, the history of Minimal and Conceptual Art and retains a sense of the void, an attention for the essence of things as well as the importance of language and a pronounced taste for reflexivity.

The simplicity of this piece, Untitled Installation (Dotted Line) is especially representative of Ceal Floyer’s approach. Comprising Letraset vinyl stickers, indicating dotted lines on the walls that delimit the surface of the exhibition space, this discreet installation directly calls upon the viewer’s imagination so as to apprehend the work and revert back to a childlike universe. This way of playing with space is reminiscent of Gordon Matta-Clark’s architectural cut-outs.