Those familiar with Carl Hammoud’s work might realise that *Stumble*, the artist’s fifth solo exhibition at Galleri Magnus Karlsson, works with the same motif that he worked with in his painting The Protest (2013): a chaotic stack of chairs.

Look. We’ll be the first to admit that an art exhibition centred around chairs doesn’t sound like the most exciting prospect in the world. But take a moment to dig a little deeper into Hammoud’s work and you’ll realise just what rich material it is.

Hammoud first came up with the idea of basing an exhibition on The Protest in the summer of 2016 when he lent the painting to a team of film-makers. During the shoot, the set designer ordered a real-life version of the painting to be created. Seeing a real-life copy of the pile of chairs inspired Hammoud. He took photos of the built copy and began to reproduce close-up images of the structure in painting after painting. In isolation, these images are removed from any sort of narrative; something as mundane as a chair leg is rendered alien and unrecognisable.

Gallery-goers are denied the opportunity of allegorical interpretation. There’s no immediate ‘bigger picture’ here. The motif is all but hidden.

Carl Hammoud (b.1976) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. He has exhibited in galleries and museums in Europe, Asia and USA. He is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Göteborgs Konstmuseum and the British Museum, London.

Carl Hammoud – Stumble is on display at Galleri Magnus Karlsson until May 7.