Mathieu Lehanneur's 'Spring' series features pieces that use material to play on the idea of the natural states – solid, liquid and gas.
In his ‘Spring’ exhibition at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London, Mathieu Lehanneur takes us into a world of flux. As if the cycle of the seasons and nature’s forces have specially looked at the fate of objects. The works in the ‘Spring’ exhibition seem to hesitate between solid, liquid and gaseous. They appear to be suspended mid-transformation in a poetic state of metamorphosis. Marble and aluminium become liquid, onyx becomes air and glass softens as in a return to its original state.
‘There is always a kind of disappointment when the material becomes fossilized in its natural state. The bright and bubbling lava crystallizes into black pebbles, the incandescent glass paste neutralizes and cools off… I tried to revive the matter and make it walk the opposite way. Towards a return to life…’ — Mathieu Lehanneur
For the ‘Liquid Aluminium’ and ‘Liquid Marble’ tables, Mathieu Lehanneur used a 3D special effects software created for the film industry. Each table is comprised of a single piece of hand-polished marble and aluminium that produces a surreal effect, appearing as if they had been frozen in time, in their liquid state. The wave-like result also adds movement to a still material resulting in a fossilized moment that only cameras can capture. The pieces are accompanied by a glass that acts as a transparent skin protecting the object’s soul.
