2010
Found Object, Plaster, Steel
160 x 120 cm

In the 1920s the Russian suprematist El Lissitzky developed a series of abstract, geometric paintings he referred to as Prounen. The exact meaning of ‘Proun’ was never fully revealed, but at some point he ambiguously defined it as being “the station where one changes from painting to architecture”.

This work is based on a found object; an unknown recipient’s name and a warning as to the fragility of the contents on the backside of the work, points to the panel´s previous use as a lid of a crate.

Where El Lissitzky’s Prounen moved from painting to architecture, the appropriation and manipulation of this found object cause it to oscillate between a number of different categories. It is at the same time a container, a flat lid, a section of a wall and a painting. It evokes both the artisan’s pragmatic carpentry skills and the abstract expressionist’s sensitive use of surfaces, but is, in fact, neither of these.