For the Sculpture Projects in Münster 1987 Matt Mullican created an extensive ground relief of granite slabs on which he had sandblasted different motifs from the encyclopaedic sign system that has become so typical of his work. These motifs are always taken from everyday life, the real world. They represent an appropriation of world, knowledge and culture, create links, and at the same time point to their concrete surroundings. While Mullican’s contribution to the Sculpture Projects referenced, semiotically, the research carried on in the Chemistry Institute of Münster University which surrounded the relief, his work, that was initially shown at “Nimmersatt?” involves the surroundings of the Prinzipalmarkt. On the facades of the department stores there the artist hangs long flags featuring a sign system that alludes to forms of goods trading and exchange. In this way the exhibition extends out into the public (consumer) domain located between all three exhibition venues, and ‘flags up’ the cycles of resources and products as a process that comprises us all.
— Text by Kunsthalle Münster, LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Westfälischer Kunstverein