15/15, SHAIKH EBRAHIM BIN MOHAMMED AL KHALIFA CENTER FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE
15 DECEMBER 2016 – 15 MARCH 2017
Penumbra: Textured Shadow, Coloured Light, held at Saatchi Gallery from 3-21 October 2018, brings together new three-dimensional works by artist Rashid Khalifa. His London debut invites the viewer to experience the beauty of textured shadows and light cast through polychromatic metal structures. Aluminium mesh wall works, steel grid mobiles, and a monumental maze form the basis of this immersive exhibition inspired by architectural grids and geometric lattices. In recent years, Rashid has experimented with metal surfaces, creating openings in his aluminium wall works and revealing the intimate space behind the surface, usually kept out of view. Penumbra takes this approach a step further, exploring changes in spatial experience depending on the viewer’s position.
Upon entering the first exhibition space, the audience encounters convex wall works adorned with colourful flaps that suggest a feeling of movement. Rashid refers to the wall-mounted aluminium pieces, whose intricate patterns are based on complex mathematical geometric design, as ‘parametric sculptures.’ In the centre of the room, three-tiered mobiles wreathed with geometric flaps are suspended from the ceiling, drawing the viewer closer. There is tension created between the vibrant and ornate steel grids and the calmness of the voids within, just out of reach of the viewer in a realm of semi-privacy. In the second exhibition space, the viewer is confronted with a colourful maze, a colossal grid structure that reimagines the shapes and tones of an urban environment, and explores architecture, city planning and memories. Rashid comments: ‘I was inspired by winding narrow alleyways and traditional architecture. I would like the audience to experience the maze as a conceptual entity – a spiritual journey with no fixed destination.’
