. matt mullican



Matt Mullican
Three Suitcases of Love, Truth, Work and Beauty
January 26 - March 11, 2006

The Christine Burgin Gallery is pleased to announce the publication and theexhibition of a new work by Matt Mullican: Three Suitcases of Love, Truth,Work and Beauty. A continuation of Mullican's project for the Ludwig Museumin March 2005 – Learning from the Person's Work – this work is similarly onethat Mullican describes as being made by "that person." In his introductionto the Ludwig exhibition catalogue, Kasper König writes: [Mullican's] "maininterest is not so much to draw a fictitious character but rather tolocalise its origin in the artist's consciousness." Where is Mullican, theartist, in the creation of his work? Where should one locate the borderbetween fiction and reality, between the subjective and the objective?These are the questions that Mullican has explored with his work, mostnotably with his works using hypnosis, since the mid 1970s.

Three Suitcases of Love, Truth, Work and Beauty, consists of nine bed sheetseach mounted with nine ink on paper drawings. In these drawings the beliefsand daily rituals of "that person" are outlined. The bed sheets are hungfrom the walls and ceiling, replacing the gallery's architecture with aworld made created by "that person." Accompanying these drawings is acustom made trunk designed to house all nine of these sheets when folded.It is the intent of "that person" that this work be used to spread the word:"Love is number one, Truth is for everyone, Work is hard and important,Beauty is everywhere." In order to help the owner of these works "thatperson" has carefully copied out as drawings both a first aid in theworkplace manual and mathematical charts which, as "that person" notes: "canhelp." Also, copied out are the lyrics to the song Heatwave: "… could it bea devil in me – or is this the way – love's sup-posed to be?" "That person"likes to copy. Copying reaffirms for him his daily ritual and the thingsthat make up his world. Copying also allows him to incorporate neededmaterial into his world. All nine sheets of drawings that make up this workwill be copied out by "that person" five times, making up the five suitcasesreferred to in the title. �In addition to the nine sets of drawings in eachtrunk there will also be two pillows. These pillows are included by "thatperson" to be of help to the new owner of the trunk. They also serve as areminder that the entire work is created of sheets, the structure of theproject the same as a bed, the realm of the unconscious, the sexual, afragile realm entered everyday.

matt mullican

matt mullican

Matt Mullican
Three Suitcases of Love, Truth, Work and Beauty, 2006
Installation views Christine Burgin Gallery, New York