A show of two young artists from UAE and India Shaikha Al Mazrou – Biju Joze

“Since we started this collaboration between the two galleries we have been trying to create a dialogue between artists from Dubai and different regions. I believe art should move beyond geographical boundaries and my association with Empty10 has helped me pursue this direction. We felt there was a great connection between the works of these two promising young artists and felt it would create an interesting exchange” – Malini Gulrajani

Shaikha Al Mazrou

Shaikha Al Mazrou (b. 1988, UAE) received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah, May 2010.

Her work investigates the use of mass-produced electronic waste as appropriated ready-mades for the creation of artworks that deal with colour, form and interaction. The conceptual development and the assemblage method of these artworks pose diverse questions on formal aspects such as material, form, repetition and geometric structure. It is a process that, inevitably, sets off an unquestionable challenge to the ideologies of industrial mass production through its handmade qualities. The large-scale installations are metaphors for the urban development schemes, a personal revisiting of the works of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Donald Judd and Carl Andre that anchors the formal qualities of the work in an art historical background.

Mazrou's current work explores the phenomenon of synchronism, the correspondence of colour and music. Her use of obsolete found objects is not only testing our intellect and our tolerance of what a gallery space can bring to the attention of its public, but is also an exploration of colour harmony in relation to musical harmony.

ShaikhaAl Mazrou / Acrylic Sheet, 100x70 cm, 2012 / Courtesy of the Artist

Her layered relief and illusional sculptures challenge the viewers conception of space. Mazrou intents for the viewer to have an instinctive and physical response to the structure, colour and surrounding space of the work.

Shaikha Al Mazrou / Red on White, Found objects, 150x150 cm / Courtesy of the Artist

A simplistic cube structure is assembled using found objects 'obsolete computer parts'. These obsolete objects start gaining their value through the situation in which they are placed. The imagery projected on the surface of the artwork appears to extend or recede from the surface. The flat shapes continue to evolve into complex multidimensional surfaces often producing complicated optical illusions.

Biju Joze

Biju Joze (b. 1972, Bangalore) received his BFA from College of Fine Art, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore, in 1996, and a MFA from MSU Baroda in 1999. He also studied in University of Ideas, Cittadellarte Foundazione Pistoletto, Biella in 2000.

In the fifteen years that he has been exhibiting his art, Joze has projected in his works a clear and emphasized understanding of his individual socio-cultural history as well as the imprint of a globalised contemporary on his environment. He trained as a sculptor and moved onto an art practice that involved multimedia installation, intuitively combining concept and material to complement and extend each other. The unusual use of organic and temporary materials in combination with synthetic and industrial ones provides the basis for the objects that he creates; these are often a visual condensation of a larger narrative or myth. He moves between an activist mode and an observer/commentator status to define specific situations, allowing the (art) object to generate larger meanings and enter into a collective sphere of memory and understanding. He ensures this widened communication through formal devices like manipulation of scale, and mutation of form and function. He has the ability to twist the mundane to produce new and challenging fictions, often with an element of satire.

Biju Joze / 2013, Tree, Vinyl stickers on paper / Courtesy of the Artist

These works are made by the meticulous and repetitive process of sticking vinyl cutouts on paper. Collectively these shapes ‘become’ the mass of the object, while also building bridges between micro and macrocosmic configurations.

Biju Joze / Agni II, Books, 2011, 25.5 x 18 x137 cm / Courtesy of the Artist

"My work is based on the intermediate-range ballistic missile, designed to carry a payload of nuclear warheads for the Indian nation. The long cylindrical form of a missile appears scooped out of a tightly packed body of books, exhibiting various titles selected to satirically approach the subject of war. The fact of the missile’s physical absence from that space is intriguing. The book visible at the forward end reads ‘Don’t Look Down’ obliquely suggesting a warning not to see the misshapen aftermath of destruction. The idea is to present the ominous idea of controlled annihilation and juxtapose its mindlessness with the concept of knowledge and cumulative cultural expression stored in the tomes." - Biju Joze