Magali Reus

22 Jan-21 Mar 2010

Overview

The exhibition 'Background' shares it's title with Reus' most recent film depicting six athletic men appearing like soldiers in training, performing a series of choreographed physical activities in an aggregate landscape. The men are clean cut, a sensuality echoed in the metal elements resting in the sand around them. The unit create tensions through silent strained exertions and uniformed movement. Intensely concentrated and self absorbed, the instructions for the mens' actions remain unclear aside from the need to test their own strength and the strength of the group as a whole. The setting of the sand and gravel is not restricted purely to posing as a background, the material is repeatedly given precedence over the figures. It could be seen that the men are nothing if not models of masculinity, where an equivalence between them and the muted landscape can be drawn. Through the elements of man, material and landscape it is undetermined which of these claims most importance or which is merely acting as the background.