The Third Line, Frieze New York, 2016, Installation View
The Third Line is participating in the 5th edition of Frieze New York and is exhibiting works by Abbas Akhavan, Ala Ebtekar, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian,Pouran Jinchi, Rana Begum and Sherin Guirguis. With the selection of the works based on exploring movement in materiality, the artists play with concepts of visual, physical and visceral perception.
Returning to Frieze New York at Randall’s Island Park, Manhattan, The Third Line will be part of more than 200 international galleries who will bring together the world’s most exciting emerging and established contemporary artists.
The artists selected in the presentation explore ideas of what it means to live an urban lived experience and how human nature adapts to its surroundings. Over the years, Abbas, Ala, Monir, Pouran, Rana and Sherin have all developed bodies of work that reflect their interaction with the city, and the elements of urban engagement, architectural forms, and activation of experiences within the human framework.
Abbas’ practice ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video and performance. The domestic sphere, as a forked space between hospitality and hostility, has been an on-going area of research in his work.
Ala’s work is produced through the distinct Cyanotype technique – a photographic printing process that includes a surface being treated with potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate, and then exposed to the sun or other source of UV light – which is dependent purely on the relation between the treated surface and light, with the final markings looking remarkably similar to a starry sky.
Through her mirror work, Monir presents both a detailed craft and contemporary abstraction that employs an interaction of surface texture, light and reflection, colour and form – the geometric forms demonstrating her long-standing interest in architectural forms.
Pouran’s new work explores a visual language taken from military code, and experiments with materials, forms and colors in works that are shaped by an ongoing flux between consistency and change present around her.
Rana’s works draw inspiration from urban visual stimuli, such as the abstract clashes of form and colour that can be seen in the city, and combines them with the traditional repetition of geometric form found in Islamic art.
Sherin investigates post-colonial themes of political, cultural and social dogma and feminist activism within the framework of the Egyptian diaspora, both in the public and private sphere.
