We often hear how hot pink or midnight blue or lime green is the 'new black'. Well, this exhibition reveals how good ol' black doesn't need any trendy hype to be appreciated, when respected for it's own unique qualities. And the quality of the hue is celebrated with a single dedication by the artist as she manipulates her media; polypropylene.
Zuchner-Mogall works the material so it appears to be timber wafers in rectilinear shapes of differing lengths and widths. The artist then bends, weaves and swirls strips or arranges cubes, rectangles and triangles of the stuff to create wall assemblages and floor or plinth sculptures. She even suggests a 'grain' by employing various saw blades to cut the polypropylene creating surface textures that reflect light differently and produce tonal rhythms within each work.
The large floor pieces are commanding, in particular Augmented #110 which consists of 5 cubes raising, point on point, from the floor. Smaller sculptures too offers visual satisfaction as wafers of material are stacked and arranged in different alignments. My interest was held longest by the four related plinth works that each show a single hollow ball cut into curved slats that fan up and around a central axis. One offers the whole ball dissected into slats, the next has the ball halved then dissected, another cuts the ball into thirds, and finally quarters. Each is very good and from every angle exhibits perfect symmetry.
Also appreciated are sculptures and wall works that incorporate red polyethylene line. Red Fibre #1 and #2 each involves a large black cube, set on a point, and wrapped in red line woven like a net. Long ends of the stiff line are left to stick up and out on different sides. Meanwhile the wall pieces Red Fibre #3 and #4 sees the line cascading from black frames like Rapunsel's locks. For all this, the one work involving red that offers the most punch is Augmented #63 as it has a single red wafer amid the composition of black wafers and cubes.
The whole presentation is excellent as Zuchner-Mogall's craftsmanship is precise and her broad range of variations within the confines of her material is astonishing.