EXHIBITION (April 27 – June 16, 2011) “Cairo Dreams 2011” at The Third Line

“Cairo Dreams are turning the outside into the inside, making the visible invisible. Cairo Dreams are leading beyond the unimaginable”

Her new body of work is as dynamic as it is personal, dealing subtly with fragility and vulnerability. She tackles the complexity of capturing and preserving a present moment in time through aluminium and ink. Her works navigate through space, travel the mind and capture the unedited.

Photo: Susan Hefuna: Structure II /  2011, Aluminium, 40x46 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Photo: Susan Hefuna: Structure V / 2011, Aluminium, 33x13 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

As an artist of dual heritage, German and Egyptian, Hefuna’s work reflects her experience between cultures, dealing with cross-cultural codes and constantly playing at what images mean and how they work. The outcomes create dream-like spaces where viewers connect a wide array of significances to indicators of time and location, putting together larger forms from various elements. Hefuna’s drawings and sculptures set a visual and structural map of her thoughts; lines and bends, dots and curves, metal and ink, which all in due course present an abstract diagram of an architectural journey.

In her new works, Hefuna’s thoughts and inspirations are galvanized in silver aluminum and ink on paper. The lines and dots build structures through their connections. She relates how human minds are like maps, how ideas and thoughts follow a path; mapping the mind and the abstract state it is in. Hefuna hijacks the viewer beyond space and time, and from a taste of the undetectable, generates an arrangement of directions. The lattices and correlations made on paper trace a journey, each line a new course. “I start at one point and do not know how the drawing will look like in the end. I follow the dots and lines unfold before me. I don’t make a sketch beforehand, I just go,” she says.

Photo: Cairo Dreams 2011 / Installation Images. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Photo: Cairo Dreams 2011 / Installation Images. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Photo: Cairo Dreams 2011 / Installation Images. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Adding another geometrical aspect to the topography of the mind, Hefuna further investigates the (a)symmetry with her sculptures. The aluminum structures exude a similar process as her drawings, in 3D and silver metal, they are also created without pre-sketches. They come to formation through on-the-go decisions, fashioned in the moment, right there and then - much like her thoughts when moving through the maze. The metal body with its aluminum configurations, outlines and curves, present a changing and evolving structure as they go from two-dimensional thoughts to three-dimensional unique objects perceived of the moment. In the same spirit, Hefuna creates for the first time large scale multilayered wall size drawings which will debut in this exhibition.

The works navigate between architectural spaces and compositions of equilibrium, whilst guided by and through the human mind and body. Hefuna’s repertoire includes a wide range of mediums which express her thoughts and exploration to enter unknown spaces. While her drawings map out structures in ink on multi-layered textured paper, her sculptural works challenge navigation and impulsiveness – all which represent her work, her mind and the routes taken to achieve the final destination.

Photo: Susan Hefuna: Drawing 18 / 2011, Mold made paper, 31.5x31.5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Photo: Susan Hefuna: Drawing 22 / 2011, Mold made paper, 31.5x31.5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Photo: Susan Hefuna: Memory II / 2011, Ink on tracing paper, 120.5x321.5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Photo: Susan Hefuna: Patience Is Beautiful / 2011, Bronze, 15x141x1.5 cm, Ed .1of3. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

Susan Hefuna

Susan Hefuna’s work reflects personal experiences in-between cultures, dealing with cross-cultural codes; she constantly plays at what images mean and how they work, creating a dream-like space where viewers can attach a wide array of significances to indicators of time and location. Hefuna has exhibited widely at international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; Kunstmuseum, Thun, Switzerland; Galerie Grita Insam, Vienna, Austria; Fare Mondi, 53rd Venice Biennial, Italy; Seville Biennial, Spain; New Museum, New York, USA; 2nd Riwaq Biennale, Palestine; 9th Sharjah Biennial, UAE; The Louvre, Paris, France; National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.

Photo: Susan Hefuna at the Studio. Courtesy of the Artist and The Third Line

The Third Line

The Third Line is an art gallery that represents contemporary Middle Eastern artists locally, regionally and internationally in Dubai, UAE. The gallery organises non-profit, alternative programs including Kutub, a bi-lingual Arab literature appreciation circle and documentary and feature film screenings. The Third Line’s publishing sector, Works on Paper, publishes books by associated artists from the region. Books published include Presence by Emirati photographer Lamya Gargash (2008), and In Absentia by Palestinian-Kuwaiti Tarek Al-Ghoussein (2009).

http://www.thethirdline.com