Magali Reus’s works are subtly suggestive of familiar machines, appliances or objects whose function and identity remain intentionally ambiguous. Visual elements are reproduced, layered and repeated in works that are individually crafted using complex casting, moulding and CNC milling and metalwork techniques, pitting the aggressive emptiness of manufacture against the slow diligence of handiwork. Oscillating between craft-based and technological production, the works destabilise material identity and association. Recently, Reus has included photography more prominently in her work, foregrounding the research methodology she uses when conceptualising her sculptural assemblages.
Her latest works have deepened an interest in ecology and systems of production, considering the tensions between nature, technology and the impact of post-industrial human activity. Reimagining everyday objects as idealised versions of themselves, Reus poses seductive contrasts: ‘portraits’ of the natural environment are aligned with manufactured materials, complicating the boundaries of human and non-human life.
Magali Reus (b. Den Haag, The Netherlands, 1981) lives and works in London.