Parabolic Structures
Solo exhibition
Chiquita Room, Barcelona, Spain
15 September - 29 October 2022
With Parabolic Structures, Phillip Maisel addresses family histories and broader notions of displacement, belonging, and what remains in our absences. Through an intertwining of personal experiences and historical events, Maisel became interested in the old Jewish cemetery in Montjuïc and the gravestones that were later used as building material in Barcelona, taking pictures and making frottage in situ. He collects old pictures of groups and families in Catalunya, which invite speculation about their lineage, pulling them into dialogue with photos of family gatherings from his own archive, as well as sound structures encountered during his time in Montjuïc. These acoustic mirrors resonate with the artist, formally and metaphorically, with their promise of the possibility for connection over spatial and temporal distances. Weaving various stories and histories, Maisel combines and collages the materials to present a fragmented visual world with a non-hierarchical associative flow, where many readings are possible.
More information at chiquitaroom.com
Two Concrete Things
Artist book
Cut, collaged, and drawn on HP Indigo prints
5.5 x 3.5” / 8.8 x 13.8 cm
Signed edition of 50
A publication containing 42 printed images on which the artist has applied cuts, collages or drawings. Maisel collects everyday materials, utilizing them to create sculptural arrangements in shallow spaces and then he photographs the arrangements, continuously readjusting and rephotographing the materials in place. As the same objects are reoriented through a series of images, the elements gain distinct visual traction through their repetition and reappearance.
Numbered edition of 50 copies with two different versions of cut, collages and drawings.
Printed in HP Indigo on 240g Classic Smooth Pergraphica Paper and bound in black or silver wire-o.
The publication is protected with a case designed by the artist and silk-screened by hand on 270g Adriatic Colorplan paper
Purchase here
Video illustrating the subtle variations between the two different versions. In some, collage appears as print and in others, print appears as collage.
Seeing Is and Is Not Believing
Running time: 5’ 18”
Video made for Paratext 43 at Hangar, Barcelona
Text, sound, and video by Phillip Maisel, 2020
The Night Before (5515/9646)
Cut archival pigment print, colored paper, ‘skin colored’ bandage
12 x 8” / 30 x 21 cm
2020
Poble-Nou, Poble-Sec (5702), 2020
Archival pigment prints & watercolor collage
12 x 8” / 30 x 21 cm
2020
Wet Meadow (3415)
Archival pigment print
11 x 8.5" / 28 x 21.5 cm
2019
Elizabeth & Emilia (6842)
Archival pigment print
12 x 8" / 30 x 21 cm
2020
The Night Before (5510)
Archival pigment print & watercolor collage
12 x 8” / 30 x 21 cm
2020
Encants (5184)
Archival pigment print
25.5 x 17” / 65 x 43 cm
2020
Park Nap (3409)
Archival pigment print
10 x 8" / 25 x 20 cm
2019