Text taken from website:Timo Nasseri: All the Letters in All the StarsCurated by Laura Metzler14 December, 2017 – 23 February, 2018 (extended until April 2018)VENUE: Maraya Art Centre, Al Qasba, Block (E), Third Floor (Maraya Art Gallery)Maraya Art Centre is collaborating with Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival to present "Timo Nasseri: All the Letters in All the Stars". The show will be the artist's first solo show in the U.A.E. and its starting point is his take on the story of Ibn Muqla, a 10th century calligrapher who claimed to have found four missing letters in the Arabic language. The works are a combination of new and older pieces, which highlight the different mediums of his practice while putting them all into a larger conversation between fragmentation and order, in the pursuit of the infinite.http://maraya.ae/index.php?r=exhibitions/view&id=67
One and One #26, 2011, Ink on paper, 104 x 148 cm, courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation
These pieces are hand drawn on black paper using white ink, like a blueprint. I later found out at a talk given by the artist in discussion with the arts writer Kevin Jones that that is exactly what they are, blueprints of the sculptural pieces made from mirrors. The equations for the angles of the triangles were written on for reference but the artist realised that there was an elegance to the pieces themselves. Only four types of triangle are actually used in the pieces and the circles are guidelines for the points of each piece.I am envious at the repetition, I myself want to recreate them, in the way I like to colour in books of pattern, borrowing the meditation from the person that originally created it. Wallowing in their soothing predictability.
Detail of One and One series - One and One #38, 2014, Ink on paper, 108 x 108 cm, Courtesy of the collection of Butheina Kazim & Mishaal Al Gergawi, Dubai (I think thats the correct label, it could also be #39)
Wall detailing research by artist on geometries.
In the talk mentioned above, the artist explained that he researches extensively on the origin of the geometries. The image above shows images of the complex and mesmerising architectural geometries of ceiling vaults he encountered in Iran. Beginning with the simplest of elements, every step of the process is one that the artist himself has calculated.
Florenz - Baghdad, 2016, Acrylic mirror and wood, dimension variable.
Florenz-Baghdad is an installation piece, it has been shown on a flat wall previously but installed in Maraya Art Centre as a room within the exhibition space. Using the same 4 types of triangle that are evident in his drawings, Nasseri constructs a space that reflects everything and nothing, fracturing the surroundings infinitely.The space left me in a contemplative awe of finding myself reflected in the artists work both physically and metaphorically. It's rare that I would find an artists work that leaves me with envy and inspiration as well as the want to simply replicate to gain access to the feelings that generating the work promises.The chaotic patterns of the light reflected on the floor were a work in themselves, I pondered how many people stepped over their surplus beauty while trying to claim the perfect Selfie in the fractured infinite.
I Saw all the Letters, 2017, Ink on paper, 59 x 84 cam each (54 pieces)
It was the methodological repetition of creating that really inspired me in the exhibition. The felling of producing, but with context deeply embedded. Enough research had been done that the work could be organic.
Unknown Letters, 2015, wood on steel table, 162 x 162 x 42 cm (4 pieces)
Unknown letters - these caused confusion, I overheard conversations at the exhibition and it came up at the talk as well. These are fictitious, created by ht e artist, a proposition of sorts, a 'what if'. In look at the way language is created and translated, the elements of 'missing' letters that appear in one language but can not be created in another and also the research of star maps to create shapes, the artist has 'found' letters. He doesn't actually give them names, or sounds but due to the way it is explained some audience members have read them as actual letters he wants to add to the alphabet.Notes for my work:Considering breaking the work down in a scientific aspect: angles, lengths, reoccurrence - separating the work down to angles, movement or instructions of creations - 1cm vertical diagonal line, from top of page measuring 9 cm long at an angle of 12degrees - in a room of 27degrees C facing NW 217 etc.Considering protocol, bodies relationship to the gesture of doing, the politics of making/creating/ownership, - control, dictatorship, offering of work for others to createsemiotics, intervention, signs, symbols.
Nasseri, T, Lepton, 2017, steel, wood, latex strings, 17.5 x 90 x 28 cm, inspiration for installation or construction.