In Karton, a selection of works from Illya Goldman Gubin, we are introduced to a new but familiar path. Extending from his resin experiments allowing fluidity to find form, now this takes the form of utility. Utility in function; resinated cardboard structures are so stiffened that they become the seats we remember as children.

Stemming from smaller prototypes accomplished in 2020, these reinforced objects have found structural integrity through serious play. The crushed and hand-formed appearance is something out of a childhood memory. Our past relation with such ever-present material as cardboard, now enters our present again. This cognitive jolt of reminiscence of the familiar is further fortified through Illya’s experimental practice. Resin and fibreglass bring to reality that which before only existed in our youthful imagination. Past daydreams thrust into realities.

A seat, a bench, a table; boxes stacked high call for engagement. Hardened by Illya’s signature resin and fibreglass techniques, this cardboard material normally associated with transport and move- ment now becomes domestically stoic. While staying true to their raw aesthetic, the use or misuse of these implied objects brings new meaning. Where these cardboard parameters once contained and held in, now they support and withstand out. Movement of goods within these boxes now alludes to mental movement and support outward; interior becomes exterior and back again. What we once carried, can now carry us.

Adjoining flat wall pieces are direct references to the formed furniture laying in front of them. Guidelines or instructions showing that this can be built and completed again. The totality of the space is accomplished through contortions and arrangements of the sum of its components. A full body-of-work referencing itself; all we have is all we need. The cognitive boundaries of the relation to the work and even the assembly of the forms, is already present and accessible. All that’s remaining from us is a return to the curious mind. Karton is born from remembering this mindset.