{"id":45669,"date":"2023-02-08T15:50:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T11:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=45669"},"modified":"2023-02-08T15:50:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T11:50:38","slug":"form-space-and-light-concrete-gets-a-birthday-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/form-space-and-light-concrete-gets-a-birthday-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Form, space and light: Concrete gets a birthday present"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alserkal Avenue opened its multidisciplinary space Concrete back in 2017, a hyper-versatile brutalist box that was the first building OMA designed in the UAE. Since then it has hosted a rich and appropriately diverse portfolio of exhibitions and events. To celebrate five years of Concrete\u2019s significance, Alserkal Avenue is hosting a show by Rana Begum; and it\u2019s an exhibition that fits the building\u2019s aesthetic.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Rana Begum (right) is an artist known for her use of industrial materials, repeating geometric patterns and colours that interact with the surrounding architecture. Although based in London, she has a long-standing relationship with the region; Dubai-based gallery The Third Line has long represented her, and she has completed commissions locally including an Art Dubai exhibit in 2017 and work for a show at Concrete in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dappled Light will be the artist\u2019s largest solo exhibition in the region to date, however. It will include works that have not been shown here before, though the core of the show itself has been touring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dappled Light originally opened a year ago at the University of Warwick\u2019s Mead Gallery, the grand reopening show for a leading Midlands gallery. Its newly refurbished exhibition rooms, all clean sharp lines and muscular use of space, aren\u2019t too different in concept to Concrete; and since Begum\u2019s show worked beautifully there, it should fill the Alserkal Avenue site equally well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on the exhibition\u2019s iteration in Concrete, Begum said: \u201cThis show means a lot to me, bringing together the varying strands of my work in a narrative that continues to inform and push my practice. In each touring location, Dappled Light has transformed to create a new experience, a new narrative\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Begum\u2019s abstract pieces characteristically make use of light, colour and repetition to capture fleeting moments of beauty \u2013 or take advantage of them. She\u2019s said she doesn\u2019t want her art \u201cto be obviously representative of myself, or my culture, or political belief or religion, because it would immediately mean it\u2019s quite enclosed. I wanted to use a language that was much more open, and I felt that gave me more freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sense of freedom is what you get from Begum\u2019s gorgeous Mesh works, dense, suspended, see-through steel-mesh sculptures in powder-coated colours that look like giant gossamer blossoms or clouds floating into the air. Concrete will be getting No. 1228 Mesh<\/em> (2023 \u2013 above).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another dramatic piece we\u2019ll see is a huge spray-painted canvas, No 1079 Painting Large <\/em>(2022). This epic 10m wide colour-field canvas has a kind of pointillist presence that one reviewer described as akin to diving headlong into a dense field of summer flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of these illustrate how Begum\u2019s work is changing from the harder edges and more geometric shapes of a few years ago, works like her 2017 Abraaj Art Prize winner shown at Art Dubai (below). Her current concerns seem more organic, more concerned with integrating into the environment rather than contrasting with or commenting on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taking that a step further, the show includes Begum\u2019s first video installation \u2013 No. 1080 Forest<\/em> (2021), a time-lapse study of natural light as it falls through the forest canopy. A slow-motion depiction of one scene across 365 days, it\u2019s been edited down to a 38-minute meditation on time passing and the seasons changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that the geometry has been omitted completely. Several constructivist wall-based works use different materials and forms to reveal the interplay of light and space; they include No. 694 Hyetal<\/em> (2016), the artist\u2019s only work to combine artificial illumination and movement with her signature perspex panels.. There will be a “spectacular” outdoor commission in the Yard, the latest iteration of Rana Begum\u2019s sculptural compositions of colourful tessellated mesh panels. Other works, including No. 1227 Net<\/em> (2023) and No. 1229 Wall Drawing<\/em> (2023), will be site-specific installations that respond to the architecture around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, that\u2019s partly the point. As Begum put it, “I am so excited to bring [Dappled Light] to Concrete and see how it responds to the vast architecture. The geometric brutalism reflects my exploration into urban form while providing a stark backdrop to the more nebulous surfaces of colour and soft, dappled light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019m excited to see how these works change and develop in relation to the new spaces they inhabit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition is organised by the Mead Gallery and is curated by Dr Cliff Lauson, Director of Exhibitions at Somerset House. Dappled Light shows at Concrete from 28 February to 22 March. More information about the Concrete show is here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rana Begum, No. 694 Hyetal<\/em> (2016)<\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Rana Begum, No. 1086 Tiles L<\/em> (2021). Paint on mirror finish stainless steel. Photo: Angus Mill. Courtesy Mead Gallery<\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Rana Begum, No. 1228 Mesh<\/em> (2023)<\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Rana Begum, No. 1080 Forest<\/em> (2021). Video loop, 18:31 minutes<\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Rana Begum, No.1227 Net<\/em> (2023). Painted fishing nylon net. Photo: Angus Mill. Courtesy Mead Gallery<\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Concrete, ready and waiting. Photo: Musthafa Aboobacker<\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alserkal Avenue opened its multidisciplinary space Concrete back in 2017, a hyper-versatile brutalist box that was the first building OMA designed in the UAE. Since then it has hosted a rich and appropriately diverse portfolio of exhibitions and events. To [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,31,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-architecture","category-art","category-exhibitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}