Ignasi Aballi

Ikon presents the first solo exhibition of work by Spanish artist Ignasi Aballí. Involving a wide variety of media, it is concerned essentially with the nature of nothingness.

Absence and disappearance are themes threaded through a selection of work. The first piece encountered at the entrance to the First Floor Galleries is People (2000-2005) consisting of shoe scuff marks on the wall, suggesting a queue of waiting individuals, now moved on. Big Mistake (1998-2005), is based on a black square (1m2) painted directly onto a wall. This shape, signifying pure, modernist abstraction is obliterated by thousands of small Tipp-Ex brushstrokes, barely visible now as a geometrical ghost.

Other works in 0-24 h reiterate a tendency to counteract conventional practice. Waste (2001) comprises a number of opened cans of white paint, informally arranged on the floor. Close inspection reveals that the cans are not full – but, on the other hand, the paint has not been used. Simply, it is in the process of slow evaporation, occurring through human inactivity. There is a pointlessness and poignancy here, a reminder of time passing relentlessly, and a reversion to disorder and chaos. In the same vein, Lists (1997-2005) conveys a strong sense of absurdity. A series of large, photographic panels, it accumulates groups of numbers and words, amounts of kinds of things reported in newspapers, such as periods of time, sums of money, percentages and mortalities. The sheer mass of information is at once impressive and numbing.

A fully illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition for £22 and is available throughout the show for £12.95

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with MACBA, Barcelona and Museo Serralves, Porto.

Ignasi Aballi
0-24 h