ANTONIO MARGUET | The Image as Instrument

About

Understanding materiality in an immaterial virtual culture is central to Marguet’s work. He thinks of images in an abstract sense: as ‘dummies’. This is not only due to the ability to seduce, but also because of their capacity to surrogate. The act of mediation - where the image as an object is used to replace or resemble the real thing - is central to his line of investigation. In particular, Marguet is fascinated by the implications of how the image become a fetish. His reflections on photography’s fetishistic qualities is underscored by his belief that objects have spiritual currency and, consequently, audience devotion. 

On a thematic level, this body of work is fundamentally concerned with mediation as part of our environment and the distinction between nature and artifice: Marguet explores the proximity of both notions with deft compositional devices. In so doing, he points to certain phantasmagorical questions concerning the image as instrument and as method of concealment: where the ‘real’ is hidden and transformed into illusory appearance.