Shaikha Al Mazrou’s sculptural experimentations and investigations are expressions of materiality—articulations of tension and the interplay between form and content as well as an intuitive, keenly felt understanding of materials and their physical properties. She combines and evolves ideas from contemporary artistic movements similarly preoccupied with formal and material elements, from colour theory to geometric abstraction.
The artworks presented in this exhibition, which consists of an entirely new body of works, commissioned for the occasion, investigate the dialectic between an autobiographic component and the abstraction of a visual solution that suggests intimacy while denying it at the same time. Direct in their title, although cryptic in their formulation, all the works originate from conversations that the artist had in a recent past and delve into a process of self-analysis, regardless of the apparent neutrality of the actual sculptures and bi-dimensional works exhibited.
As components of a puzzle, the works bear the potential of a solution, whenever correctly interpreted and rearranged, thus instigating a tension between the artist and the audience, which is playfully directed to find the key to the unveiling.
Deeply informed by a series of theoretical readings, among which Briony Fer’s On Abstract Art plays a fundamental role, the works created for this occasion – the first institutional solo show of the artist in her native UAE – draw multiple ascending lines between Al Mazrou and the artists who have preceded her in the exploration of abstract language, while positioning her as a new strong voice in this lineage.
