Color Coded, 21 x 30cm (each panel), burnished colour pencil on sculpted Fabriano Artisitico 300gsm. 2022
Memory Cells, 10 x 16cm each aprox., sculpted Fabriano Artistico 300gsm and watercolour. 2022.
This series of work is an exploration of the meaningless things we do in order to have a meaningful life.
Each piece is inspired by a different occasion in Mau’s childhood where he was directed into carrying out repetitive and oppressive tasks. The apparent aim of which were to make him a more rounded and conforming individual.
Indeed, the show’s title, ‘One by one to one million’ takes its inspiration from one particular event. During an Easter break, the nuns who taught at the Catholic school which Mau attended, instructed him to write out all the numbers, one by one, from zero to a million, by hand.
The obsessive, clinical and time-consuming construction of the pieces in the show - which relies on hand-cutting thousands of lines and painstakingly peeling away individual strips of paper – is a reflection upon this and other similar experiences.
However, they aren’t solely a means of addressing these trials from his own upbringing; but they also aim to bring into question more generally our relationship with time, and how we seek to create and find meaning in our lives.
Text by John Sewell
Vibration V, 22.86 x 30.48cm, hand drawing with graphite and colour pencils on polypropylene (Yupo), 2021.
Memory Bundles (selection), 22 x 33 x 2cm (aprox.), assemblage of childhood drawings, accumulated artworks, stolen photographs and other documents. 2022
Memory Bundles
As a migrant, it is sometimes difficult to have access to those objects that hold your memories. Time and distance makes them slowly become blurry and incomplete, as if they belong to someone else. You carefully select and discard things as you make your way around the world, keeping those easier to transport and with the highest value of meaning in our suitcase, all bundled together.
With time, you slowly become a memory thief in a desperate move for reconstructing your own past. Your memories are not enough. You steal, you take, you borrow, you transfer and transform the meaning that objects hold for others. Their precious stories are now yours… but at what cost?
Interesting things:
Play with materials
Minimal
Texture
Sculptural but 2D
https://mausamayoa.com/
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