Patrick Heide Contemporary Art is pleased to present Between, an exhibition that brings together the works of three artists from quite diverse cultural backgrounds: Minjung Kim, Susan Hefuna and Saad Qureshi.
Curated by Patrick Heide the choice of artists was nurtured by the idea of a global society and art world resulting in myriads of transient places, styles and concepts - a realm in between a given and a newly formed identity. Though originating from Asian and Oriental backgrounds, Korea, Egypt and Pakistan, all three artists of Between live or chose to live in Europe.
The installations and works on paper are grouped around topics of identity and heritage and bear many marks of cross-cultural dimension. They hover in the stress field of Eastern tradition and Western modernity, figuration and abstraction, creation and destruction, spirituality and reason.
While Between is an enquiry into global multiculturalism, it is also an exhibition where Western and Eastern ideas and techniques meet, its artists adopting different codes and languages when crossing multiple artistic disciplines and concepts.
Between explores places that transcend time, space and cultural identity. It unites artworks that attempt to grasp the essence of the void when lingering in transition. It results in works with unfathomable meditative qualities that reveal concepts of duality with reams of spiritual layers.
Korean artist Minjung Kim had been trained in calligraphy and traditional painting in her youth and moved to Italy in 1991. Large-scale rice paper collages from her new “Street” series will be shown alongside her sculpture ‘Without Gravity’, where crystal slabs form a cube in which a spherical of blue pigments is floating.
Large-scale rice paper collages from her new “Street” series will be shown alongside her sculpture ‘Without Gravity’, where crystal slabs form a cube in which a spherical of blue pigments is floating.
Artist of dual heritage, German-Egyptian artist Susan Hefuna’s works on paper play with layers of interpretations and perceptions.
Between will feature three works from her series Building where Hefuna draws on superimposed layers of tracing paper with ink and watercolour, the compositions often relating to the recurrent motif of her sculptures, the mashrabiya: wood gridded windows in Islamic architecture that allowed air circulation and filtered the light while protecting women from public view yet permitting them to look outside.
Playing with the idea of revealing and hiding, Hefuna’s research is almost archaic, yet subtly engages with controversial personal, social and cultural issues that stimulate a reading between the lines.
Recent Slade graduate Saad Qureshi works across various disciplines to investigate the psychology of visual perception. Of Pakistani origin and migration background, Quershi’s art is emotionally charged and struggles to reconcile the failure of belief systems with the harsh reality of contemporary life.
Columns made of chapatti bread entitled “On this Earth” and charcoal filled burnt prayer tapestries resembling testicles will convert the gallery space into an evocative yet striking visual challenge.
A new series of distorted landscape drawings will complete the Red Mansion laureate’s presentation
In occasion of the exhibition the recently published catalogue entitled ‘Minjung Kim - Fire is science and sculpture’ with an introductory text by Jean-Cristophe Ammann will be presented.