Exhibitions2018shown

CAUSTIC

Cluj-Napoca. Galeria Casa Matei, 8 May 2018. Bleach on black paper, and the film made from it.

Black ground crossed by thick pale gold rules and thin white lines, scattered with bleached discs, a barred strip and a small standing figure at the right

A figure in blue seen from behind, standing inside a black field of pale gold ruled lines, bleached discs and small ladder shapes — From the Caustic film, April 2018

A stone-vaulted gallery with black and gold folding works standing open on pale wooden plinths, the artist working at one of them under the arches — Galeria Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca, before the opening.

The same room during the install, a ladder against the stone wall and works being set out on a white table — Installing the show.

Two people hanging a long pale sheet from the top of a stone arch in the vaulted gallery — Hanging a sheet from the arch.

The vaulted stone cellar full of people at the opening, black-and-gold bleach panels standing on plinths along the wall and a table of small drawings in the foreground — Opening night, 8 May 2018.

A large folding black panel covered in pale gold marks standing open on a plinth, guests talking around it in the stone room — A folding work, and the crowd around it.

Several people leaning in close over a lit panel of drawings, absorbed, their backs to the camera — Reading the drawings.

Caustic was a solo show at Galeria Casa Matei in Cluj-Napoca, opening at seven in the evening on 8 May 2018. The room is a vaulted stone cellar. The work went into it as objects, wax and paper sheets standing along a table, folding books that opened out like screens, one large black panel on the wall.

The vaulted room filled with people under the stone arches, works on their plinths standing between them — The room, full.

A crowd gathered under a tall stone arch at the entrance in warm light, one person raising a camera — Under the arch, at the entrance.

Ovidiu standing against the stone wall of Galeria Casa Matei beside a large black panel of pale ovals and dotted lines, with wax works laid out on a table to his right — Caustic, Galeria Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca, May 2018. The panel on the wall is the drawing the film moves through

A figure in blue bending forward with one arm outstretched, beneath a large bleached oval and crossed gold lines on black — From the Caustic film

Folded wax and paper sheets standing on a dark table, marked with black chemical blooms and looping pale lines, more sheets ranged behind them — Wax and paper works in the room

A folding book of black panels covered in pale gold marks, held up in front of the face against a stone wall — One of the folding books, held open

Nine small bleach drawings arranged in a grid on black, a looping signature-like mark, a stepped cross, a tablet of short strokes, a burst of fine lines, a pyramid over a dish — The drawings, laid out

The marks are bleach on black paper. The bleach lifts the dye out of the sheet, so every mark arrives pale gold or bone. Nothing is added. In April 2018 the same drawings were filmed and set moving: a short film, a minute and ten seconds, in which the panel's ovals and ruled lines open into a field and a figure in blue walks through it.

A single small card drawn on black, a pale gold rectangle with one dark disc at its centre, alone in the dark — One card

Black and white view of a work table, a glass of clear liquid, a dip pen held in one hand, sheets of black paper, a spool of thread and a box of tools — The table

A pale inverted frame in which a nib draws a dark line, overlaid on faint outlines of a seated figure, a table and small squares — Drawing, overlaid

Four bleached sheets pinned together on a studio wall above a paint spattered bench, one of them the winged form — Four sheets on the studio wall, August 2018

A single tall sheet pinned to a rough plaster wall, a standing figure and a hooded one under a long diagonal — One sheet, pinned up

A sheet on the wall carrying hands, a figure and scattered dotted lines, the workbench below it — Hands, and the bench below

A large black board leaning in the studio, covered in symbols, a spiral and small framed marks — The large board, November 2018

The film is the fullest record of this work that survives. Of the show itself there is a handful of photographs.

Medium: Bleach on black paper; wax and paper; folding books; single-channel video (1920×1080, 1:10)
Materials: Sodium hypochlorite (bleach), Black paper, Wax, Single-channel video
Role: Artist
With: Eduard Fulop, video, Amanda Maier, video, Galeria Casa Matei, Expo Maraton