Axis brings together nine new works in cast resin with three recent lacquered pieces from the Yōkan collection, made in collaboration with Kawatsura Shikki artisans in Akita, Japan. Each object is activated by a single gestural line that interrupts an otherwise flat or simple volume and changes how light moves across it. Executed in two completely different materials the same gesture and the same basic forms reveal how much materiality shapes our perception of an object. This show is the result of over ten years of Marcelis working closely with resin and more recently with lacquer, two materials that continue to inspire her practice.
The title Axis refers to the line around which something revolves. In each work that line is literal, a single gesture that becomes the point around which the entire piece is organised. Without it the surfaces would remain flat and inert and without dimension. The resin pieces made in Rotterdam and the lacquered Yōkan pieces made in Akita are two distinct points connected by a shared formal language and a shared obsession with what materials can do when pushed to their limits.
The new works include four wall-mounted pieces, a large circular work in peach resin with a single indentation running across its face, a rectangular translucent resin panel paired with its Yōkan lacquer counterpart where the same ridge darkens in resin and lightens in lacquer, and a third wall work in matt opaque resin where the absence of reflection makes the depth of the surface almost impossible to read. Two table lights in butter and peach resin wrap a single line of light around a solid volume, transforming the experience of the material entirely when switched on. The furniture works replicate the twisted axis of the Yōkan tables in a new resin console finished in a soft soapy matt guava, a deliberate contrast to the deep glossy lacquer of the Japanese versions.
