Magician’s tricks

In these works from thirty years ago, the stage illusion is re-imagined as a modern death ritual. Miniature models of magician’s furniture, gold-leafed and hollow, become sarcophagi for a theatrical afterlife, created for mass consumption. Beside them, large-scale ply ‘drawings’ enveloped in glossy darkness use staged projections of light to echo the assistant’s own visual experience. It is an exploration of the space between the performance of magic and the reality of the vessel.

‘Sawing through a woman’, 1994-5

20 x 48 x 25cm. Balsa wood, Gold leaf

‘Sawing through a woman’ w, 1994-5

120 x 180 x 1cm. Marine ply, Gloss paint, Brass plates

‘Mismade girl’, 1994-5

6 x 30 x 8cm. Balsa wood, Gold leaf

‘Mismade girl’ w, 1994-5

120 x 180 x 1cm. Marine ply, Gloss paint, Brass plates

‘Vanishing lady’, 1994-5

18 x 18 x 24cm. Balsa wood, Gold leaf

‘Vanishing lady’ w, 1994-5

120 x 140 x 1cm. Marine ply, Gloss paint, Brass plates