1181 Foil

Location

Country: USA
City: Washington DC
Place: British Embassy

This artwork comprises rectangles of aluminium foil, arranged together in either a grid or a single line. Each rectangle is spray-painted in different colours and has fold marks that give the appearance of a loose grid-like form on the surface. As light hits the aluminium surfaces, it interacts with the colours and folds on the aluminium, changing the appearance of the surface of each rectangle, and of the larger grid, or line, of foils. By manipulating the flat surfaces of the aluminium through the folds, Rana Begum draws her viewer's attention to the surface itself. As the viewer moves and as the light changes, the viewing experience changes with it.  Begum’s practice investigates light, colour and space alongside her interest in geometric logic. Her influences come from sources as varied as Islamic architecture to minimalist art in Europe and the US.  Her interest in grids has spilt over into working with the grid as a more malleable configuration, as in this work, rather than just as a rigid structure. As the architect Sam Jacob states ‘she draws out viewpoints that exist between the graphic and the spatial to reveal unexpected nuances between the usual categories of flatness, relief, object and space…she creates fields of abstract pleasure and experience – and in doing so presents new possibilities of what space itself might be’.

Rana Begum graduated with an MFA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 1999, going on to receive an MFA in Painting at the Slade School in 2002. She was born in Bangladesh and spent the early years of her life there, before moving to the UK with her family. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions internationally, including at Concrete, Dubai, UAE (2023); Pitzhanger Manor, UK; and the Moody Centre for the Arts at Rice University in Houston, USA (2022); Mead Gallery, UK (2021), Wanås Konst, Sweden, (2021); Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2018) following the Tate St Ives Artists Programme residency at Porthmeor Studios; Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2018); and Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK (2017). Her work has been included in various group exhibitions including at Desert X, Palm Springs, USA (2023); The Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2023 and 2020) the Folkestone Triennial, Kent, UK (2021); Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK (2018); Gemeente Museum, Den Haag, Netherlands; and The 11th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (both 2016).

Places

Subjects

geometry, Islam, industrial, urban

Materials & Techniques

foil, aluminium, paint, spray paint, painting (as object name)

Artist

Rana Begum (1977 - )

Title

1181 Foil

Date

2022

Medium

spray paint on aluminium foil

Dimensions

height: 43.6 cm; width: 38.5 cm; depth: 5.0 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Kate MacGarry, October 2022

Provenance

Kate MacGarry, London UK; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 20 October 2022

GAC number

19115/17