Elementa, Dubai, is pleased to present five international artists who through a variety of media, confront issues of perspective and negate modernist philosophical principles that relate to art history and architecture. Instead, we are offered a glimpse of how they re-create and challenge the picture plane.

‘Foreground. Background.’ brings together painting, drawing, video, and sculpture and relays the idea that today’s artist, while clearly influenced by past movements in art, is successfully divorced from linear thought. Ground Experiment # 1 by Matt Calderwood (London, UK) is a simple document of a construction and intentional destruction of a structure made from two concrete slabs and four wine glasses. The use of these modern, man-made materials, is a both a criticism and tongue-in-cheek nod to architectural legends of the twentieth century. Pins another piece by Calderwood relies on balance in its minute assembly of pins and dice. What becomes fascinating about his work is the inevitability of instability, a feature that runs through most of his work.

 Aron Hill’s (Calgary, CAN) pencil drawings of hybridized birds and buildings take a scientific or analytic methodology to approach nature and architecture. His clinical use of empty backgrounds draws us to closely inspect and learn that these birds are fictionalized, while the buildings have an uncanny sense of being inward looking, impenetrable, and impossible as self-supporting structures. Like Hill, Peter Macdonald (London, UK) draws highly detailed mise-en-scenès, created from subconsciously ingrained moments and by repeating small marks in a highly obsessive detailed manner. He shows us a farmed land or a controlled space hinted at by use of the faint tyre tracks indicating human presence. Through cross-hatching and obsessive repetition, a three dimensional density is uncovered that creates a voyeuristic feeling of having been to these ‘sites’ before.

Adrian Scrivener’s (London, UK) sculpture, Logoland 5, is influenced by our modern day urban environments and verbose signage that shout at us through logos, branding, advertising, traffic instructions—all which direct our movements and communication. Each logo is fictionally constructed by the artist, printed onto card, and arranged into an invented city that makes a poignant commentary on Tokyo, New York, or Dubai—cities which are in perpetual states of re-invention. A larger version of this piece was commissioned by the London Architecture Biennale in 2006, and took Scrivener two years to research and make.

Shaan Syed (Toronto, CAN/London, UK), an artist who comes from a figurative tradition, has removed all narrative in place of more formal concerns of depth, colour, luminosity in thickly layered oil paintings, and addresses the influence of the effect of the image by removing it altogether. Instead we are left with a space of potential, or something left wanting. He leaves us with the flash of the bulb, the empty red carpet moment; its celebrity culture minus the star attraction.

Each of these artists challenges the viewer to negotiate our relationship to the discourse of perspective, and move beyond these discussions that have established themselves in cement. They offer a new strand in relating to the fundamentals of the basics of making a picture. ‘Foreground. Background.’ is curated by Swapna Tamhane, who explores the relational dialogue between space and memory, both through her own artwork and curatorial projects.

Elementa, Dubai, is pleased to present five international artists who through a variety of media, confront issues of perspective and negate modernist philosophical principles that relate to art history and architecture. Instead, we are offered a glimpse of how they re-create and challenge the picture plane.

‘Foreground. Background.’ brings together painting, drawing, video, and sculpture and relays the idea that today’s artist, while clearly influenced by past movements in art, is successfully divorced from linear thought. Ground Experiment # 1 by Matt Calderwood (London, UK) is a simple document of a construction and intentional destruction of a structure made from two concrete slabs and four wine glasses. The use of these modern, man-made materials, is a both a criticism and tongue-in-cheek nod to architectural legends of the twentieth century. Pins another piece by Calderwood relies on balance in its minute assembly of pins and dice. What becomes fascinating about his work is the inevitability of instability, a feature that runs through most of his work.

 Aron Hill’s (Calgary, CAN) pencil drawings of hybridized birds and buildings take a scientific or analytic methodology to approach nature and architecture. His clinical use of empty backgrounds draws us to closely inspect and learn that these birds are fictionalized, while the buildings have an uncanny sense of being inward looking, impenetrable, and impossible as self-supporting structures. Like Hill, Peter Macdonald (London, UK) draws highly detailed mise-en-scenès, created from subconsciously ingrained moments and by repeating small marks in a highly obsessive detailed manner. He shows us a farmed land or a controlled space hinted at by use of the faint tyre tracks indicating human presence. Through cross-hatching and obsessive repetition, a three dimensional density is uncovered that creates a voyeuristic feeling of having been to these ‘sites’ before.

Adrian Scrivener’s (London, UK) sculpture, Logoland 5, is influenced by our modern day urban environments and verbose signage that shout at us through logos, branding, advertising, traffic instructions—all which direct our movements and communication. Each logo is fictionally constructed by the artist, printed onto card, and arranged into an invented city that makes a poignant commentary on Tokyo, New York, or Dubai—cities which are in perpetual states of re-invention. A larger version of this piece was commissioned by the London Architecture Biennale in 2006, and took Scrivener two years to research and make.

Shaan Syed (Toronto, CAN/London, UK), an artist who comes from a figurative tradition, has removed all narrative in place of more formal concerns of depth, colour, luminosity in thickly layered oil paintings, and addresses the influence of the effect of the image by removing it altogether. Instead we are left with a space of potential, or something left wanting. He leaves us with the flash of the bulb, the empty red carpet moment; its celebrity culture minus the star attraction.

Each of these artists challenges the viewer to negotiate our relationship to the discourse of perspective, and move beyond these discussions that have established themselves in cement. They offer a new strand in relating to the fundamentals of the basics of making a picture. ‘Foreground. Background.’ is curated by Swapna Tamhane, who explores the relational dialogue between space and memory, both through her own artwork and curatorial projects.

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