Carbon 12, Dubai (7 July - 10 Sep 2020) Group exhibition Out of the Woods at Carbon 12

Days have passed, spent observing the outside from within the pristine interior of Gil Heitor Cortesão’s painting, to other days, as in Monika Grabuschnigg’s drawings, spent contemplating relationships in highly digitalized societies. Moving forward from months of isolation, countries worldwide slowly sputter to life once more, as a newfound normal slowly begins to settle in place. The exhibition, Out of the Woods, encompasses a longing for the return of the familiar.

Gil Heitor Cortesāo, White Room, 2017, Oil on Plexiglas, 72 x 72 cm / © Gil Heitor Cortesāo. Courtesy of Carbon 12. Photo credit: Anna Shtraus

While the collective body of work heavily emphasizes the individual practices and varying media of these artists, there is a strong significance to concepts of form and structure, such as in Sarah Almehairi’s wooden work, that observes processes of assembling and reassembling to create and form meaning, and in Amba Sayal-Bennett’s mild steel sculpture, which explores how phenomenological experiences can be reduced to the basic terms of line, colour and shape.

Sarah Almehairi, Building Blocks 3, Series 1, 2018. Acrylic on wood, 97 x 57 x 5.4 cm / © Sarah Almehairi. Courtesy of Carbon 12. Photo credit: Anna Shtraus

Amba Sayal-Bennett, Crane, 2019. Powder-coated mild steel, 139 x 36.5 x 35 cm / © Amba Sayal-Bennett. Courtesy of Carbon 12. Photo credit: Anna Shtraus

Upon the reappearance of some semblance of normal, world issues still remain: in Olaf Breuning’s woodcut painting, he delves into urgent matters of global warming and rapid climate change, while in Amir Khojasteh’s series of works, he manipulates drawing as a form of non-restrictive media, to contrast imposing purposes of political propaganda.

Olaf Breuning, Water, 2019. Woodcut print, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 138 x 188 cm / © Olaf Breuning. Courtesy of Carbon 12. Photo credit: Anna Shtraus

Beneath its red glow, in one corner, Philip Mueller conveys a character in indifference, as though yearning for elsewhere in this time of uncertainty, for a faraway diversion, such as Tiberio Beach Resort, the fictional beach resort within Mueller’s expansive, imagined universe. With a nod to its title, The Fail, together, the works reflect on contemplations of now: on the destiny of today, tomorrow, and whatever else should arrive after.

In Anahita Razmi’s work, she considers the implication of scripted television narratives in relation to Eastern cultures and politics. The word projected on the LED ticker display reads KISMET, meaning ‘destiny’; referring to a soap opera's impossibility to ever end, doomed to the perpetual cliffhanger.

Anahita Razmi, Kismet / © Anahita Razmi / Courtesy of Carbon 12

The exhibition opened at Carbon 12 in Dubai on 7 July and will run until 10 Sep 2020.