Shaqayeq Arabi’s sculptures are fundamentally abstract, yet evoke a range of associations. They speak to both the built, urban environment and the natural world by combining the textures of found objects with the rawness of materials such as wood, tree branches, dried flowers or pieces found in construction sites. By combining found objects found in everyday life, they examine the different forms and textures of materials, and, through them, the balance between the expressively abstract and the suggestively pictorial. They propose a metamorphosis from the base, synthetic nature of their materials to the ethereal nature of a composition – be it installation or sculpture.
Rememebr-being, 2021
Stilt, 2019-2020
Floats, 2017
Image of Self, 2016
"The surface, of the water, mirrors many things.” - Masami Kato
Assemblages, 2016
Assemblages, 2015
Mixed media (composed of found objects, wood, plaster, paint, wire, stone, branches and plastic flowers). Intimate in scale and composed of simple materials. Upon closer inspection, the small found-objects that comprise these assemblages take on a monumental scale – they are proportionless and timeless.
Totems, 2015
There is a forest of driftwood in front of you – twigs and metal planks are elegantly stacked or balanced against each other, interspersed with myriad small details: metal wires, spools of thread and small, brightly colored plastic ties. Larger, they resemble totems, stripped to their most basic element.
Rolled Canvases, 2009-2010
Paintings as objects, Shaqayeq unravels the canvas support, then reconstructs the artwork with the addition of drapes, folds and incisions that emphasize their altered sculptural forms.
My Diary, 2008
Metamorphic, 1999
