Ghizlane Sahli: Histoires de Tripes – Chapter II

Sulger-Buel Gallery presents 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.

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.

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