Bend stretch. The artist dismantles the classical articulation between frame and painting, motif and background. Picture and frame are accordingly no longer directly connected, visual elements are fragmented, ornament and main figure taken apart.
Our relation to images is conditioned by the various pictorial conventions of Western culture. Nadira Husain (born 1980 in Paris, lives and works in Paris and Berlin) addresses them in her work, albeit decidedly not from a traditional Western male perspective. Her generally figurative pictures display the influence of both Indian miniatures and the feminist theoretical discourse. This atypical combination results on the one hand from an exploration of Husain’s own Indian roots as well as from her reflection about current social and political structures on the other.
In her first institutional solo exhibition titled BEUGEN STRECKEN [bend stretch], the artist dismantles the classical articulation between frame and painting, motif and background. Picture and frame are accordingly no longer directly connected, visual elements are fragmented, ornament and main figure taken apart. The pattern’s proliferation and dissemination through the exhibition space dissolve the usual connections between wall, frame and image with the intent to reassemble these components within a different dynamic. Nadira Husain’s formal research reflects tension fields that are emerging within today’s society amid a desire to emancipate from traditions and the yearning for them.
Image: Nadira Husain, La saison des amours, 2013. Batik, Tempera auf unbehandelter Leinwand, 120 x 70 cm. Courtesy die Künstlerin, Galerie Tobias Naehring, Leipzig und PSM, Berlin
Opening: Fr 27.6.2014, 18:30 Uhr
Welcoming speech: Dr. Rainer Beßling, Geschäftsführung Künstlerhaus Bremen
Introduction: Fanny Gonella, Künstlerische Leitung Künstlerhaus Bremen
Künstlerhaus Bremen
Am Deich 68/69 - 28199 Bremen
Opening hours: Wed - Sun 2pm - 7pm