A Public Privacy
Emerging GCC artists facing a context where the private dimension is trivialised in public and the public is immortalised in the private arena. Curatorial essay for the show at DUCTAC, Dubai.
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Tension II & Relax. 2014
Ceramics and powder coated steel
A deep sense of physical involvement also emerges through Shaikha al Mazrou’s (UAE, 1988) practice as a whole and especially in her most recent projects, including Tension II and Relax, which are exhibited in this show. The minimalist matrix that permeates her practice, with the refinement of strict formal control, is still present, yet the reference to a theoretical school has undergone a process of elaboration that clearly opens up to a personal positioning within that current of thought. The playful nature of Al Mazrou’s work is counterbalanced by a dramatic, and not always hidden, approach to topics of public domain, if not debate. Through abstraction and geometry, the work raises issues of engagement, confrontation, illusionism and unresolved balance, which are also explicitly evoked in the title and which ultimately engage the viewer in a self-confrontation about the nature of reality and appearance.
© Photo: empty 10, Dubai
Emerging GCC artists facing a context where the private dimension is trivialised in public and the public is immortalised in the private arena. Curatorial essay for the show at DUCTAC, Dubai.