In these sculptures, Alban experiments with the craft of intarsia, an ancient inlay technique that predates the seventh century AD. This involves inserting pieces of wood or other materials into a contrasting furniture surface, to depict a scene or story.
He skews the artisanal nature of these and other craft techniques in his process. In his intarsia works, he cuts through the material entirely, sands and carves the edges of the cut parts and then glues them back together. Connector plates, normally mounted out of sight, are often screwed to the outside of his pieces, to replace sophisticated joinery. By deliberately misinterpreting or misremembering these techniques, a new visual dialect emerges: a stylized ode to awkwardness, ambiguity and misunderstanding.