Faultline
Cement, concrete, gold gilding
36 x 30 cm
2016
Fracture reframes yet revisits familiar landscapes in focusing on construction sites in the UAE. Miniature concrete walls were built, broken, and rebuilt to reinstate the fault lines, intentionally damaged, discarded, and rusted to iterate the ancient Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi that sums up the core intention behind this project. The philosophy recognizes the transient and the imperfection of everything and redefines what we perceive as beautiful, perfect, or functional. Repaired walls depict human existence as fragile and vulnerable by embracing perfection in imperfection in nature and manmade systems.
Sounds of construction work and an interview with one of the workers were incorporated along with standing sculptures of scaled-down walls, drawing on the labor community's absence and hard work that goes into making a building in the UAE at present.
Reclaimed - Cinder block from Abu Dhabi Port
Cement, concrete, gouache, gold gilding
20 X 43.5 cm
2016
Rust
Cement, concrete & rust
36 x 30 cm
2016
Rust - Detail I
Rust - Detail II
Rust - Detail III
Brick by brick
Cement, concrete & acrylic paint
36 x 36 cm
2016
Brick by brick - Detail
Transcendence
The Urdu text is a quote from one of the construction workers I interviewed during my research ‘A man is nothing without education.’
Cement, concrete, gold gilding, acrylic
48 x 26 cm
2016
Transcendence - Detail
Split
Cement, concrete, gold gilding
36 x 23 cm
2016
Porcelain fired with slip, oil paint, gold gilding
60 x 190 cm
2016
Fibonacci cracks - Detail