CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL

Recesses, Installation view
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Recesses, Installation view
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
Recesses captures Chafa Ghaddar’s current experimental investigations informed by fresco, a historical technique that she started studying in 2012 while in Florence, Italy.

Slighting, Reposed and Unfold, 2020. Mixed media on canvas, Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
“In Recesses, I explore the paradox of a medium that can be timeless and vulnerable at once. I combine it with other techniques, particularly to process the idea of trace and fragmentation of time and space.”

Recesses, Installation view

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
The works combining papers, paintings, frescoes, video, text and sound are viewed as a territory of a new skin that begins and ends, again and again. Inside their presence and through their placement, time stops and shatters. I blur it, split it and disrupt it. The body is evoked. What is there, sitting beside this physical presence? And what is really experienced within, underneath or even through that skin?

Recesses, Installation view

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
In this exhibition, various bodies and surfaces are invaded, contaminated, penetrated and ‘worked on’ by a variety of materials or phenomena. While not literally fresco, the process and way of knowing embodied by fresco informs the works. Here, fresco, as an historical technique and as a fundamental pillar in my own practice is problematised.

Recesses, Installation view

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
The works in this exhibition display fresco as process. “Here, I problematise this historical technique and question its principles. In particular, I employ the giornata – the mark of how much painting can be done in a day, usually concealed in standard fresco practice ¬– as a finality, a permanent and visible mark. Therefore, a territory of a new skin arises repeatedly. “

Recesses, Installation view

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
“Through frescoes I explore the manifestation of time on surfaces. Historical gesture appears in conversation with the present. Traces are evoked or retained, then investigated. Temporalities clash.”

Recesses, Installation view

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL
“Fresco allows me to pierce an ecosystem of consistencies and paradoxes and make them mine.”

Recesses, Installation view

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL

Leaning and Slighting, 2020. Mixed media on fabric, Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL

Slighting, 2020. Mixed media on fabric, 197 (L) x 150 (W) cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL

Unfold, 2020. Mixed media on canvas, 600 (L) x 213 (W) cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL

Reposed and Unfold, 2020. Mixed media on fabric, Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.

Source: Tashkeel
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CHAFA GHADDAR | RECESSES AT TASHKEEL

Rested, 2020. Mixed media on fabric, 115 (L) x 91 (W) cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Source: Tashkeel

Chafa Ghaddar’s exhibition Recesses shines a new light on the ancient mural-making technique of fresco by challenging the “wall” and the idea of completion. The exhibition runs until the 25th of October, it is a body of work resulting from a year of research and experimentation, which combines paper, painting, fresco and other media as a territory of skin, offering viewers an intimate and challenging experience of touch, colour, texture and material.

This body of work marks the culmination of Chafa Ghaddar’s participation on the 2018/19 Tashkeel Critical Practice Programme. Established in 2014, the programme offers sustained studio support, critique, mentorship and production to artists living and working in the UAE. It aims to enable practitioners to deepen their practice and give added impetus to their careers. Alumni are Afra Bin Dhaher, Vikram Divecha, Hadeyeh Badri, Raja’a Khalid Lantian Xie, Debjani Bhardwaj, Jalal Bin Thaneya and Silvia Hernando Álvarez.

The exhibition that runs until the 25th if October is accompanied by a catalogue and a public programme of workshops and talks.

Sourced from the exhibition’s press release.

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