Histoires de Tripes – Chapter II: Ghizlane Sahli

Overview

In her first solo gallery exhibition in London, acclaimed Moroccan artist, Ghizlane Sahli utilises her remarkable understanding of space and form to present a series of three-dimensional bas-reliefs, as well as drawings and sculpture, in an exhibition in which she invites us on an inner and organic journey into the human body.

 

By utilizing discarded materials, such as the carefully cleaned and cut tops of water bottles - the detritus of a consumer society - Ghizlane Sahli allows this ‘rubbish’ to transcend its lowly, throwaway status.  Through the deft application of silken sabra (vegetable silk) ribbons, these individual elements are arranged on wire mesh into representations of the organs and viscera of the body. This transformation can be seen as an act of care and love. As the artist notes:

 

This work is an exploration of the human body. Each artwork is a zoom into different parts of the body. I have seen thousands of parts of the body, and having those images in mind I have tried to express them through my work. This is my first work as a solo artist. I needed to explore a universal subject: a subject to which we were all connected regardless of the notions of education, religion, gender or society. The human body was the best metaphor I could find and through it I wanted to work on emotion. As I said in an interview with Mouna Anajar, I always have that idea in mind, of a big hand taking the human body and shaking it, to ‘clean it’, from all the ‘pollutions’ brought by education, religion or society, and keeping just the core of it, the pure part. It is that part that I want to show as a tribute to our body.

 

The very title of the exhibition, evoking ‘tripe’ with all its associations of food (especially the parts of an animal carcass that are seen as ‘secondary’ or even disgusting are now made delicious, shimmering and seen as essential parts of a working body: a whole body. The fact that this is human ‘tripe’ is also significant. These bodily elements are the same which drive the body machine and cleanse it, regulates it, processes our nutrition and pumps blood throughout. They are what makes us live. By concentrating on this universalising aspect, the artist reminds us that what may seem morbid or distasteful is in fact what keeps us alive and able to interact with each other; the viscera are what make us what we are.

 

The artist, whose initial training in Paris was in the field of architecture, uses shape, arrangement and physical presence in space to create abstract assemblages of individual concave elements that together harmonise into groupings that evoke the organic while in some ways bearing no direct comparison or model in nature itself. The components making up these works, which stand proud from their flat base, are in fact the tops of recycled plastic bottles, meticulously enrobed in silk thread, giving each texture, lustre and an optical quality that varies depending on the viewer’s position and the light conditions in which they are seen.

 

These shimmering, jewel-like constructions, speak of the transformative power that a concern for the environment – coupled with a technical mastery of material and deep understanding of the workings of shape and form in space – can evoke for both the artist and the viewer.

 

These bas-reliefs present a unique and powerful statement of what makes us, at the most fundamental level, people; and what truly ties all humanity together: a commonality of biology and anatomy that cannot be denied or divided by cultures, creeds or political systems.

 

This important exhibition offer London-based patrons of African art an opportunity to see a fresh and exciting new voice in the continent’s constellation of up-and-coming contemporary artists.

 

The exhibition will be opened in the presence of the artist on Tuesday 19 March 2019 at 18:30 and concludes on Tuesday 7 May 2019.

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Press release

Sulger-Buel Gallery cordially invites you to attend the opening reception of Histoires de Tripes – Chapter II, a solo exhibition by Moroccan artist Ghizlane Sahli. The exhibition will be opened in the presence of the artist on Tuesday 19 March 2019 at 18:30 and concludes on Tuesday 7 May 2019.

  

About the Artist:

Ghizlane Sahli was born 1973 in Meknes, Morocco and today lives and works in Marrakech. In Paris, she studied architecture but returned to her native country after this time to open a workshop staffed by local artisans and produced innovative textiles and design work.

 

In less than a decade she became renowned for her award-winning tissue creations. It was in 2012, following the production of a dress made from waste (rubbish bags, jerry cans, plastic bottles, etc.) for a feature in a local magazine that she decided to close her embroidery workshop and concentrate on the making of pure artistic creations.

 

Along with her sister and two photographers, she formed the Zbel Manifesto Collective, working in the transformation and sublimation of waste products. The collective appeared at the Marrakesh Biennale in 2014, presenting an installation, Pimp My Garbage. They were thereafter invited to participate in the inaugural exposition of the Mohamed VI Museum in Rabat.

 

Today Sahli continues her work with the help of local artisan women. Through her acts of recycling, re-energising and re-use, she draws attention to critical environmental issues while also evoking beauty that potentially lies underneath and embedded within the seemingly everyday.

 

About the Exhibition:

Histoires de Tripes – Chapter II

 

In her first solo gallery exhibition in London, acclaimed Moroccan artist, Ghizlane Sahli utilises her remarkable understanding of space and form to present a series of three-dimensional bas-reliefs, as well as drawings and sculpture, in an exhibition in which she invites us on an inner and organic journey, bound by a universal theme, and allows us to transcend what would normally exclude humans from seeing “Universatility”, and its sophisticated and complex mechanism. Sahli does not claim or condemn anything, for her, ‘belonging’ is a fragmented prison, and identity, a notion far too complex to confine or freeze without risking alienation. To this, she consciously substitutes the exploration of what is most fundamental and common to humanity, in its primitive origin, cleansed of all the stigmas that make it a distinction or belonging, whether cultural social, religious, geographical, racial or gender.

 

The artist, whose initial training in Paris was in the field of architecture, uses shape, arrangement and physical presence in space to create abstract assemblages of individual concave elements that together harmonise into groupings that evoke the organic while bearing no direct comparison or model in nature itself. The components making up these works, which stand proud from their flat base, are in fact the tops of recycled plastic bottles, meticulously enrobed in silk thread, giving each texture, lustre and an optical quality that varies depending on the viewer’s position and the light conditions in which they are seen.

 

These shimmering, jewel-like constructions, speak of the transformative power that a concern for the environment – coupled with a technical mastery of material and deep understanding of the workings of shape and form in space – can evoke for both the artist and the viewer.

 

The addition of one of her characteristic ‘heart’ free-standing sculptures and a series of drawings unifies this important exhibition and offers London-based patrons of African art an opportunity to see a fresh and exciting new voice in the continent’s constellation of up-and-coming contemporary artists.

 

Details of Venue:

Address:          51 Surrey Row, Unit 2 La Gare, London SE1 0BZ

Telephone:      +44 203 268 2101

Email:              christian@sulger-buel-gallery.com

Duration:         Tuesday 19 March 2019 at 18:30 – Tuesday 07 May 2019

Gallery hours during exhibitions: Monday - Friday: 10:00 - 18:00

Weekends or other times by appointment only.

 

About Sulger-Buel Gallery:

With over three decades experience in collecting and studying African Art, Christian Sulger-Buel became the remaining partner of Sulger-Buel Lovell Gallery which had been in operation since 2014. Specialising in the contemporary art of Africa and its Diaspora, the team at Sulger-Buel Gallery builds on half a decade's commercial experience in presenting dynamic, challenging and exciting art exhibitions, publications and consultancy services. The gallery provides a focus for those in London to acquaint themselves with choice work from one of the fastest developing, ground-breaking and important areas in the field today - African art. Visitors and collectors can look forward to cutting-edge and influential exhibitions at its London space as well as at international art fairs by an international team of gallerists, consultants and curators.

 

Media Contacts:

Christian Sulger-Buel
Director
Mobile +44 777 578 2955
christian@sulger-buel-gallery.com

 

www.sulger-buel-gallery.com

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