• Mirror artworks on display to coincide with the unveiling of Merging Blocks

    On view at Abel Fragrances
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  • As Marcelis’s exclusive representative gallery in Australia and New Zealand we are pleased to announce there will be a small exhibition in Wellington of mirror artworks to coincide with the unveiling of Merging Blocks. We are grateful to our NZ/Netherlands friends at Abel in Wellington, who have graciously offered to host the exhibition from 22 – 28 March. This is a unique opportunity to acquire work by Marcelis in New Zealand. 
  • We thank our friends at Abel for hosting this exhibition with us , About Abel

    We thank our friends at Abel for hosting this exhibition with us

    About Abel

    Former winemaker Frances Shoemack founded Abel when her search for a modern, elevated fragrance made only from plant-based, renewable ingredients came up short.A decade on and the Abel collection of 100% natural fragrances for body and home prove that the best palette of ingredients can be sourced in, and returned to, nature. Nourishing scent rituals that smell and feel authentic, not synthetic.

     

    Determined to set a new standard in natural perfumery, Abel pushed the boundaries of natural, renewable ingredients like never before. Pioneers in the use of biotechnology and natural science in the fragrance industry, Abel works with the world’s top perfumers to craft elevated modern, 100% natural fragrances for you and your home. In doing so Abel is paving a way forward to untether the fragrance industry from its petrochemical reliance. Abel’s careful edit is sold in over 25 countries globally to much acclaim. 

  • Sabine Marcelis: Merging Blocks, Te Papa
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  • Merging Blocks (2024) marks a significant moment in Marcelis’ practice, bringing an element of scale and permanency to her work not before seen. Mergere—the Latin root from which the word merge stems—means to dip, dip in, immerse, or plunge. Today, merge is a term that implies connection; the coalescence of one thing into another. Marcelis explores this idea through a site-specific work that does not simply attach itself to the four plinths that mark the boundary between the forecourt of Te Papa Tongarewa and the Wellington waterfront, but instead merges with the landscape and its surrounds.

     

    Four mirrored glass volumes, each a slightly different shape, each with slightly different proportions, each with the same mirrored gradient—folding gently in colour from dark to light—have been installed across the four plinths. Their reflective forms, luminous and jewel-like, return the sun’s light to their urban surroundings with changed colour. Rather than sitting atop the plinths, the volumes engage with them, elevating these bluestone pedestals from objects of urban utility to pieces of functional beauty.

     

    In this way, Merging Blocks can be read as a comment on connection and unity; the materiality of its four forms, as a tangible expression. Together, the mirrored blocks and plinths create a harmonious whole, but one that is not singular and one which cannot be contained. During the day, saturated shadows spill beyond each plinth, while their mirrored exteriors remain constantly in motion, reflecting the pattern and pace of the world that surrounds them. John Cage wrote that certain experiences are “invitations to events at which we are already present”, and this is one such work. While nothing outside of the plinths have changed, suddenly the landscape around them appears anew. 

  • The use of glass gives the large-scale forms a sense of lightness, while the gradient gives the impression that the...
    Image Courtesy of Neil Price

    The use of glass gives the large-scale forms a sense of lightness, while the gradient gives the impression that the volumes glow. With colours that mirror the skyline at dusk and dawn, the sculptures seem to capture nature's ephemeral beauty within permanent objects. The contrast between form and colour is captivating, while the mirrored element invites both interaction and introspection from passersby. Each volume has been designed to reflect a different aspect of the city: the faces of those passing, the tangle of clouds or the emptiness of a sky—they show us both the mood of a city and the hijinks of its weather.

     

    Merging Blocks is a celebration of the environment through shared interaction, a comment on the rhythms of life which precipitate our understanding of time, space and being.

     

    The materials are additionally activated by the shifting light of their location. Throughout the day, as the light changes, so too does the footprint of each block. On bright days, it stretches and increases, a glow that reaches across pavements, faces and buildings. When the sun moves beyond the horizon, the line that follows the point of connection between the plinth and the mirrored volume begins to glow. As with much of Marcelis’ work, Merging Blocks alters our experience of space through colour, shape and light. 

     

    Like Wellington broadly, the site of the Four Plinths plays host to elemental drama: winds blow to gale force speeds of up to 100 km per hour, sea spray flies from the harbour, and during summer higher solar angles give biting intensity to the sun’s rays. Merging Blocks has been designed to withstand such weather extremes, its durable form is the result of production techniques Marcelis has spent the last decade refining from her studio in the industrial harbour of Rotterdam. The laminated glass volumes are clad onto stainless steel structures that have been affixed to each of the plinths, making them both resilient to wind and entirely recyclable at end-of-life. The volumes are as large as manufacturers are currently able to produce, with their unique materiality never before seen on such a scale.