Subject Mullican Element

de Lynne Cook

Over the last four decades, Matt Mullican has created a complex body of work concerned with systems of knowledge, meaning, language, and signification. His work takes form as drawing, collage, video, sculpture, performance, and installation, but Mullican is perhaps best known for his performances: these take place under hypnosis, allowing the artist to treat his own psyche as yet another medium. The drawings Mullican makes in this state - as an alter ego he refers to as "that person" - recall Surrealist experiments with automatic writing. In recent years, interest has surged in Mullican's work as younger artists and curators have rediscovered him.