text by Bartomeu Mari, Dan Cameron, Robert Bresson, Andrew Renton, Georges Perec, Gérard Wajcman

Ikon presents the first solo exhibition of work by Spanish artist Ignasi Aballí. Involving a wide variety of media, it is concerned with the nature of nothingness.

Absence and disappearance are themes threaded through a selection of work. People (2000 – 2005) consisting of shoe scuff marks on the wall, suggests a queue of waiting individuals, now moved on. Big Mistake (1998 – 2005), is based on a black square (1m2) painted directly onto a wall.

This shape, signifying pure, modernist abstraction is obliterated by thousands of small Tipp-Ex brushstrokes, barely visible now as a geometrical ghost.

Other works in 0-24 h reiterate a tendency to counteract conventional practice. Waste (2001) comprises a number of opened cans of white paint, informally arranged on the floor.

Close inspection reveals that the cans are not full – but, on the other hand, the paint has not been used. Simply, it is in the process of slow evaporation, occurring through human inactivity.

English and Portuguese text.