Latifa Sayadi: A twist of iron(y)

Genetically manipulated something, 2007

Latifa Sayadi's metal sculptures have a playful character: entanglements, twists and foldings of the material are paired with word-plays and innuendos. Conceived as individual pieces or as series, Latifa Sayadi's works re-enact a situation, express a state of mind, suggest a human form. Although she defines her works as abstract sculptures, their focus doesn't lie in virtuosities and stylization of the form. What makes them abstract is their poetic and often ironic interpretations of reality.

Done in various materials, her sculpture surprises by the way one material meets the other, one brass detail fits within the body of the steel. Nevertheless, the sculptures don't work by contrast, but by surprise. Sayadi's art is not an attempt to gain an effect, but to express and trigger a discovery. In her view, balance is a zigzagging flight of stairs (Equilibre, 2012) and craziness can dis-place and display a “heart” of gold (Verrückt) .

Verrückt (detail)

 
While some of the single sculptures are built around a defining detail, the series play with the idea of reality and its multiple perspectives (Lonesome Tragedy and Lonesome Comedy). But the artist is not fixed on binary situations and the serial character of her work is a playful and insightful attempt to catch the richness of life (see Expression, Impression, Depression).  

Lonesome Tragedy, 2007

 
Latifa Sayadi's playing ground is quite large: besides sculpting metal she also makes installations and etchings. While the forged metal sculptures carry the memory of fire and noise which accompanied their coming into form, the etchings put forward a certain quietness and delicacy. In her installations, born out of a desire to react to and interpret real events which caught her attention, the evocative power of the chosen materials is reinforced by the works' titles (Immigrants leaving traces or Rue de l'Impasse). Be it personal experiences or serious political themes (such as immigration, land poisoning through bomb dropping, re-installation of dead-end regimes), her subject matter is always treated with a twist of irony.

Dictature globale, 2012

Immigrants leaving traces, 2011

The text was first published in: Latifa Sayadi, catalogue, simpact, Tunis, 2013.

Photos: ©Stefanie Gierke, Latifa Sayadi, Holger Ziefus (for the sculptures); ©Joerg Kretschmann (for the etchings).
Please visit Latifa Sayadi's website: www.schmiedin.de 

'0 Grad'-It's not Berliner weather, it's art!

Small, private galleries make up the humus for a creative atmosphere in Neukölln. Kartüche is not only part of the local bohemia, but manages to put a small corner of the borough on a larger map.

The Kartüche gallery opened its exhibition last weekend with graphic works by the South Korean artist Kwanyoung Jung, metal sculptures and etchings by German-Tunisian blacksmith Latifa Sayadi. Jung's poetical, abstract landscapes are minutely drawn line compositions. His large format canvases play with ideas of multitude, repetition and perspective. At first fascinated by their monochrome palette, you soon discover they change their reflection, like water or mirrors do.

Verrückt, Sayadi's thin, metal sculpture playfully inhabits the centre of the second room. What makes a normally rigid-looking object playful? This one slightly bends when you get closer. And there you have it: movement ('rücken') and the state of being crazy ('verrückt') in one! It is not the first time Latifa Sayadi's forms play with words (see Geträumte Eindrücke or L'Impasse de la Liberté). The rest is yours to discover.

“This exhibition could have taken placed anywhere: in Berlin-Mitte or London”, said a visitor I couldn't help overhearing. And this was, no doubt, a compliment paid to good art.

'0 Grad'

October 5-November 3, 2012

Wed-Sat: 3-6 pm and by app.

kARTüche Gallery, Leykestr. 17a, Berlin

Exhibition views with Hügel by Kwanyoung Jung and Verrückt by Latifa Sayadi