Rand Abdul Jabbar: Molding Anew
Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai
2024
This was the first solo exhibition of Iraqi-Canadian artist, Rand Abdul Jabbar, staging an interplay between narrative and sculpture to explore myth-making as a method of preservation and transformation.
When contemplated as a whole, the exhibition can be perceived as a proliferation of echoing forms. As one meanders among this earthly field, the eye never struggles to find visual rhythm and modulation. It's a work that continuously unfolds as it is experienced. With every turn, there is a new, yet familiar, encounter.
From an organizational standpoint, the exhibition is born out of notions of seriality and multiplicity that are inherent in Abdul Jabbar's practice. The families of ceramic works are grouped on top of families of ceramic pedestals, in a simultaneous act of scattering and gathering. It is in this landscape of difference and repetition where one can begin to discern what is nascent in the work. Looking outwards from within, the arrangement of pedestals creates visual frames for the three sets of wall-based works, Tracing Origins, Alphabet and Inanna's Descent. Their positioning is such that they're always seen in direct dialogue with the ceramics, alluding to the way they were conceived: an exploration of form and meaning through different mediums.
Lastly, the material cohesion between the Earthly Wonders, Celestial Beings and the hand crafted ceramic pedestals heightens certain qualities inherent in the medium and reduces the visual, formaland tactile contrast, or disconnect, that is typical in the relationship between art and pedestal. In this harmonious relationship, the hand-molded undulation becomes the base unit of perception.
When contemplated as a whole, the exhibition can be perceived as a proliferation of echoing forms. As one meanders among this earthly field, the eye never struggles to find visual rhythm and modulation. It's a work that continuously unfolds as it is experienced. With every turn, there is a new, yet familiar, encounter.
From an organizational standpoint, the exhibition is born out of notions of seriality and multiplicity that are inherent in Abdul Jabbar's practice. The families of ceramic works are grouped on top of families of ceramic pedestals, in a simultaneous act of scattering and gathering. It is in this landscape of difference and repetition where one can begin to discern what is nascent in the work. Looking outwards from within, the arrangement of pedestals creates visual frames for the three sets of wall-based works, Tracing Origins, Alphabet and Inanna's Descent. Their positioning is such that they're always seen in direct dialogue with the ceramics, alluding to the way they were conceived: an exploration of form and meaning through different mediums.
Lastly, the material cohesion between the Earthly Wonders, Celestial Beings and the hand crafted ceramic pedestals heightens certain qualities inherent in the medium and reduces the visual, formaland tactile contrast, or disconnect, that is typical in the relationship between art and pedestal. In this harmonious relationship, the hand-molded undulation becomes the base unit of perception.