Karim Noureldin presents Des, Diw, and Naq at Sculpture Park
Karim Noureldin. Photo credit: Andreas Zimmerman
Karim Noureldin will be showcasing his works Des, Diw and Naq at the Sculpture Park in Jaipur on 26 February 2023. The three media works showcased are signatures of the artist’s work, forming a unity and interacting with the rooms of Madhavendra Palace, once the living quarters of Nahargarh Fort.
Hand-painted ceramics are posed on shelves and pedestals within several rooms while in the open courtyard veranda, a suspended sculpture is leading to the rear main rooms.
Two large-scale textiles installed there act as floor objects, echoing with their repeating geometrical patterns the ornamental paintings of the surrounding walls and ceilings.
The ceramics are locally sourced pots, painted by the artist and placed in existing wall niches as well as on specifically made presentation pedestals, built out of mango wood.
Elevating these humble day-to-day objects into pieces of art entitled Naq, these archetypical storage shapes echoing similar projects of as-found objects the artist developed, transformed into his own artistic repertoire of ornamentation.
Interacting with the open courtyard architecture and the main entrance view, the metallic sculpture entitled Diw suspended on hooks who, historically, already held objects and lamps. Reminiscent of the light objects used by the annual Diwali festival, Diw is nevertheless a colourful geometrical object with precise and harmonious proportions, metaphorically standing for focus and centering, symbolically for eternity.
In one of the adjacent rooms as well as in the main hall are two textile objects, entitled Des. Both objects are created specifically for the room and are reminiscent of the artist’s deep fascination of textile and weaving techniques of Rajasthan, designed by the artist and handwoven in the traditional “Panza” technique of Jatwara, a town near Jaipur. While the smaller blue/red rug is showcasing patterns of square and diagonal fields, the red/green/magenta rug has zigzag structures, signature geometries of the artist. These unique works function as floor images and complete the elaborate visuals of the richly decorated walls and ceilings, forming together a three-dimensional space of ornaments.
Des, Diw and Naq together act as domestic protagonists of a fictive house and complete the historical place of Madhavendra Palace with an environment of contemporary art.
Karim Noureldin
Photo credit: Ariel Huber
About Karim Noureldin
The work of Swiss artist Karim Noureldin has been based on drawings and where ideas and concepts are expressed, creating small and large scale works on paper as well as entire room installations, interacting with the architectural space and entire buildings.
In Karim Noureldin’s oeuvre, architecture forms a basis in a double sense: On the one hand, because the artist creates works in and on buildings, thus making walls, floors and ceilings the image carrier of his interventions. On the other hand, being part of it as a visitor is also completing the architecture itself, intertwining perception and reception of space, forming an important part itself.
Noureldin’s works on surfaces recall the concise and often complex geometries of ancient floor mosaics or early modern decorative objects, walls or ceilings. These visual strategies are also evident in the more recent artworks the artist has been working on and where photos, textiles, ceramics and sculptures are enlarging his repertoire, encompassing an “all-over” approach within media and artistic expression.
These works share the same spirit and where scale does not matter neither a hierarchy of media, be it a small hand-drawn drawing or large-scale patterns painted within an architectural environment, “as-found” artefacts documented via photographs, ceramic objects customised by the artist’s paint or weaver’s knowledge for the creation of unique textile objects, transforming media traditionally associated with craftsmanship into work of art.
In Karim Noureldin’s work, a highly poetic imaginary interweaves reality and illusion, ideas and concepts, structures, patterns, materials and colours using an abstract language rooted both in ancient geometries and their symbolic meanings as in contemporary abstract art.
Follow Karim Noureldin on Instagram @karim_noureldin
