Maximillian Schubert - Doubles

Doubles
Maximillian Schubert
Off Paradise
120 Walker St, New York, NY 10013

Maximillian Schubert uses casting and mold making, and altered found objects to create sculptures and paintings that blur the boundary between real and recreated objects. Various sized stretched raw linen canvases line the space, each with particular folds and cracks and holes splitting the rectangles. But the linen is not linen, rather it is a molded double of a linen canvas, textured and broken apart, then reassembled and hung. The work Untitled (fracture), when seen from the front reads as poorly stretched linen, the points of fracture question whether these are painted on or real. When viewed from the side the artist does not attempt to hide the lines of adhesive where seams are pieced together.  The frame is a shell of picture, the canvas has molted like a snake shedding its skin, leaving behind something that only reminds you of what once was. 

In the middle of the room is Stations, a propane tank fit with aluminum tubing that has been bent and punctured in various spots. The gas is lit where the tubing has been punctured, creating minuscule flames spitting out and illuminating the otherwise invisible gas. The flames reflect the points of fracture in the wall works with a highlighted point of light rather than a void of black. The works are neither broken nor whole, but exist in-between states of absence and actuality.