Laura Owens

Mungo Thomson Laura Owens

Surveying three key series spanning Thomson's investigations into mass culture and everyday perceptual experience

This first comprehensive monograph on the Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Mungo Thomson (born 1969) focuses on three series that embody his exploration of popular culture, time perception and everyday objects to question what we most take for granted. In the Time series, person-size silkscreened mirrors bearing the red border and logo of the 100-year-old magazine, pair a precise historical moment with the viewer's own reflection in the present. The Wall Calendar series displays commercial calendar images as if held up to the sun, allowing the reverse side of the page to show through. Printed on both sides of the fabric and stretched over a light box, recto and verso are collaged together with light--the calendar grid of a single month is superimposed onto a photograph of a 40-million-year-old mountain. The Snowman series consists of trompe-l'oeil stacks of Amazon boxes and other online retail shipping cartons cast in sturdy patinated bronze.