Jonathan Muecke: Objects in Sculpture

Does color have shape? What is the texture of scale? Is it possible to eliminate surface? Can space expand?

For more than a decade, American designer Jonathan Muecke (born 1983) has tackled such deceptively straightforward yet puzzling questions about the relationship between form, material, and perception through a range of creative experiments. Whether working in steel, wood, textile, or composite materials, Muecke’s intent remains consistent: to produce objects that challenge our spatial expectations and habits, prompting us to experience our physical environments—and to understand our place within them—anew. ​

Objects in Sculpture, the designer’s first solo exhibition in a major museum, presents a selection of key works that Muecke identifies as “open objects.” Harnessing precise, spare lines and evocative shapes, the objects eschew traditional design typologies and historical references. Each work rigorously questions the interdependence and possible synthesis of formal and material phenomena. 

The resulting objects are curious, enigmatic, but also familiar: a rock with holes; a faceted curvature of carbon fiber felt; a five-sided, open box made of steel; a textile volume with concave surfaces; a continuous, multitiered wooden zig-zag. Muecke insists that these ascetic objects—while meticulously crafted and deliberately devoid of details—are not minimal. Instead, he argues, the objects are “maximums,” each manifesting the limits of legibility and perception, memory and apprehension, and therefore have the capacity to generate new relationships between objects, bodies, and space.

Credit: Overview from museum website