Simon Iurino

Simon Iurino has a practice of collapsing layers. The history of a place might very well come up in the  form or material of his work. The title may reflect the concept. The place may inform the aesthetic  just as much as material or spacial necessities. The motives for his installation “Out of the Blue”  showing cyanotypes (the old technique of blueprinting used for architectural drawings i.e.) are traces  of bubble wrap and tape. By using packaging materials as motive the artist collapses not only layers  but also moments in time of interaction with an artwork. 

His new installation for the space O.T. run by Max Lust in Vienna combines the results of several  previous processes and develops them further. Precisely by using altered mirrors for the installation  he makes his method the motive of his work. 

His recent installations are simultaneously walk-through structures, architectural elements,  sculptures and displays. The elements forming the object are run-of-the-mill aluminum profiles for  construction purposes. Construction com-panies or the EU or the MOT association standardized  them just like the wooden beams Simon Iurino chose to use, subsequently accepting all possibilities  and limitations the material dictates.  

The structure functions as a display for his new works on mirror. The mirror itself as a material is  already loaded with implications: From trivial associations with the beauty obsession of our times  and a need for disruption (of the surface reflecting us) to Lacan’s theories of the mirror stage in the  development of children. The opening quote from Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” suggests some of  the thoughts evolving around this subject. Due to the form of the display structure every shown flat  work is always visible from both sides, the “front” side and the “back”.  

Before aluminum was used for mirrors a layer of metal or silver on glass, was protected by a layer of  lacquer.  

By way of laser cutting, Iurino uncovers or removes single layers and adds additional ones with UV  prints or etching on the glass. In his character of working with language he translated the mere fact  of the backside - front-side visibility into a motive by using anticlimaxes like “loop-line” or “riot-rule”.  The words appear in the different layers of the mirror objects. In the case of the sentence “be on my  side or be on your side” (taken from song lyrics) the backdrop captures the moment of a surfer  thrown from his board on the peak of the wave leaving it ambiguous if the board will fall down the  front of the wave or slide down the back of it.  

The words are simply fit to occupy the whole surface of the mirror without any more layout decisions  being applied. Last but not least, one of the works is mirroring the title of the exhibition space it is  shown in “O.T.”. If you think this merely is a blunt way to pay tribute to a closing exhibition space,  you are wrong. Over the years Iurino has developed a grid he calls language pattern. Starting with  the pattern of ‘x’ repeated without line spacing, which inverted  

(erasing the language character of the sign using it rather like Wade Guyton), became a pattern he  used repeatedly in his artistic language; a pattern that changed with each chosen font or letter.  Invitations to his last show used the pattern of the letter ‘E’. Now the ‘o’, which inverted only leaves  a dot, is playfully tempered with in its legibility.  

Many different patterns overlap and can be distinguished by the viewer who choses to read the  laser-cut, the engraving, or the UV-print or the negative spaces of those or even, his own  fragmented reflection of what is left behind of the original mirror.