Parabolic Structures Exhibition

With Parabolic Structures, Phillip Maisel addresses family histories and broader notions of displacement, belonging, and what remains in our absences. Through an intertwining of personal experiences and historical events, Maisel became interested in the old Jewish cemetery in Montjuïc and the gravestones that were later used as building material in Barcelona, taking pictures and making frottage in situ. He collects old pictures of groups and families in Catalunya, which invite speculation about their lineage, pulling them into dialogue with photos of family gatherings from his own archive, as well as sound structures encountered during his time in Montjuïc. These acoustic mirrors resonate with the artist, formally and metaphorically, with their promise of the possibility for connection over spatial and temporal distances. Weaving various stories and histories, Maisel combines and collages the materials to present a fragmented visual world with a non-hierarchical associative flow, where many readings are possible.