MAI 36 GALERIE, ZURICH - Mullican Haus der Kunst München

The work of Matt Mullican (born 1951, Santa Monica, USA) focuses on the meaning of life and the world order, which he tries to make visible in his spatially invasive installations. Mullican sees each object, each person and each phenomenon (or their depiction) as part of the universe and as a universe in itself. The artist is convinced that all that exists has a meaning that can be understood from a concrete context. This world view dovetails with both the immoderate as well as unfulfillable claim to collecting everything, presenting it in a system and thus give the world that surrounds us a structure. In so doing, Mullican finds support in scientific methods like classifying in taxonomies and encyclopaedias. The result is a system that becomes a model of the world, of a subjective cosmology in which everything is interconnected and provides us with very astonishing perspectives. The exhibition shows a selection of Mullican's works that are of seminal importance for his continuing development since the 1970s. The rarely seen early installations are set in the context of the present evolution and display in particular the artist's encyclopaedic approach.