Parabolic eyebrow tack on (rather than a signature)
Helen Marten plays with the everyday objects she reassembles to challenge the traditional order of things. In doing so, she reverses the system of references by which we generally understand objects, offering works that are pushed to the very limits of the functional. Here, in a destabilizing juxtaposition, a photograph of a sheep’s head is transformed into a clock and an advertisement for Benetton. As for the strip of wallpaper, it is a take on an architectural frieze. Placed in a contemporary context, it goes from traditional bas-relief to a two-dimensional image, made from vectorized drawings. Created and laid out according to mathematical logic, circular rather than linear, the motifs seem to draw on an ornamental repertoire from different geographical regions and cultures.