Rana Begum at The Third Line, Dubai

The Third Line presents the Moment of Alignment, the second solo exhibition by Rana Begum in Dubai. 
Six new large-scale, coloured aluminium works form the exhibition supported by a selection of works on paper.

Rana Begums new body of work necessitates what can be described as "full body viewing", meaning that a static viewpoint would not even come close to unravelling the complexities of image, pattern, colour and meaning encapsulated in these forms. From one single central view point these works simply appear black; an array of perfectly dark, industrially coated verticals of extruded aluminium. From this view the only hint that there is more to them is the subtle reflected colour on the white walls showing between the vertical bars of black.  To understand further we need to move, we must walk around them, stand afar, peer up close. The reward is a rippling fluid shift, geometric forms turned upside down, flipping from yellow to blue, from pink to brown. Begums training as a painter is evident, the wall is still her support structure, but even though these works hang, they are utterly sculpture. We must interact with them, we are no longer a passive viewer.      

Begum describes The Moment of Alignment as the point at which the every day clutter of barely ordered chaos that surrounds her in London seems to accidentally make sense. These are the moments that inspire her, and within her work she tries to capture multiple moments of alignment, and the viewer, by choosing where to pause in front of her work, can create almost infinite compositions. Each person who sees the show must find his or her own individual moment of alignment, the single position where every piece lines up for them.