1166 Foil

Rana Begum (1977 - )

spray paint on aluminium foil

2022

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  • About the work
    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’.
  • About the artist
    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).
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  • Details
    Title
    1166 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
    19115/4