Marlie Mul is an artist and educator whose practice fluidly moves between sculpture, painting and textile, engaging heavily with institutional critique via installations and publishing. These various artistic directions are a result of the critical attitude in which Mul examines her position within the contours of art history and contemporary culture. Each work adopts an inquisitive, almost polyvocal character, with diverse visual registers batting for the viewer’s attention. In her textile works for example, graphic, cartoonish figures are overlayed with gestural abstract markings. Mul’s sculptural works similarly contain formal sculptural qualities, whilst the inclusion of colloquial items such as cigarette butts dethrones any sense of art-historical grandeur. This playful duality between visual language and cultural nods is a constant throughout Mul’s installations, generating both a comic and a sincere tone. The influence of Dada and Surrealism can be traced in Mul’s work, particularly the sculptures of Meret Oppenheim, whilst the amorphous practices of Hito Steyerl and Andrea Fraser serve as contemporary parallels, mirroring Mul’s commitment to criticality. ...
