Oranges & Lemons

"...Machines are also at work in ‘Oranges & Lemons’. Here Hugal used Google to select works by Mark Rothko featuring the colours orange and yellow. He then looked for the catalogue descriptions for the chosen works, which he presents in the absence of the ‘originals’. The automatisms – the catalogue’s uniformized description, the Google search process and the choice of the search words ‘yellow’ and ‘orange’ – produce a textual composition which contrasts with the mystical, transcendental experience of Rothko’s work. Here Hugal plays off the language against the absent images, thereby producing a different form of abstraction that is irreconcilable with those images..." excerpt from exhibition guide Abstract History St. Lucas 2012 by Koen Sels - copyright Koen Sels 2012