BRONZE 2010-20 | Maysaloun Faraj

MAYSALOUN FARAJ Bronze Sculpture 2010-20

Maysaloun Faraj at the Art Bronze Foundry, London in preparation for Maryam II 2012

Sculpture by Maysaloun Faraj acts a springboard into a language without words. Her pieces are delicate and lyrical; silent letters in a lifelong correspondence with the divine. They incite profound reflection on the endless possibilities of matter in relation to the universe.

There is a ripe and startling physicality to the sculpture even though on the surface each is fragile, fragmented and often executing an impossible balancing act. The innocence and magnificent naivety that ebbs from the sculpture comes directly from its continual aspiration towards simplicity.

Even though the shapes making up each sculpture tend to assume their own mysterious order, the unusual harmony of line and colour invariably points at a sense of wholeness, of plenitude. And the balance of elements, though at times in appar-

ent defiance of gravity, is all the more marked for its successful amalgamation of apparently discordant parts.

Each sculpture offers a distinct sensation of oneness dissolving, transforming then redefining itself, first into clay, then into bronze, in an ongoing act of material purification. This fusion of ancient and contemporary in the artist’s oeuvre reveals a vision that is luminous and progressive.

As a series, they tell wordless stories of how the brokenness of things is in fact the necessary beginning of a journey towards greatness, with former wounds evolving into sacred scars, testifying to a life fully lived, and within that, a verve, a glimpse of the divine.

Kate Busby, Barcelona 2012

Kate Busby is an alumnus of Oxford University and a freelance writer. She has worked with Milton Keynes Gallery, Edge of Arabia, JAMM Art and regularly publishes articles on contemporary art.

Dham’ma Allah Noor 45x45x9cm 2010

I’jaz (Meem Hha Ain Seen Qaf) 155x23x7cm 2014/17

AlRahman AlRahim 145x12x7cm 2010

Tommorrow My Heart Will Heal 30x16x13cm 2010

Maryam I (Kaf Ha Ya Ain Ssaad) 120cm 2012

Lightning: Allahu Khairun Hafidhan wa Huwa Arham AlRahimeen 60x50x30cm 2017

‘Growing up between the USA (1950s-1960s), Baghdad (1970s) and London (since 1982) with intermittent bouts in Paris, contributed to shaping my output as a painter, ceramist and sculptor.’

Maysaloun Faraj’s visual vocabulary is colour and basic geometric form; an ideal realm for harmony and order. Amid an aesthetic informed by architectural discipline is a web of references bridging East and West, ancient and contemporary often pondering on ‘spirituality’ and the transience of human existence.

Displaced by decades of war, her work also contemplates the intersection of place and identity and explores the dynamics between overarching societal concerns and the highly personal.

She is integral to the rise of interest in art from Iraq, with curatorial work including the first international showcase of modern and contemporary Iraqi art touring the UK and the USA (2000-3).

Faraj is editor of the seminal publication Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art (Saqi Books 2001).

She co-founded Aya Gallery in London with her architect husband Ali Mousawi (2002-10) as a leading platform to promote and advance art from Iraq in particular and the Middle East in general. Faraj served as a judge for the first Arab Art and Culture Award in the UK (2008) and was art resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2015/17/18).

Her work is in noteworthy collections including the British Museum, the National Museum for Women in the Arts (USA), Barjeel Foundation (UAE), Rotterdam Werldmuseum (Netherlands), National Museum (Jordan), Aga Khan Foundation (UK & Canada) as well as private collections including Hussain Harba (Italy), Ibrahimi collection and Ali Husry (Jordan), Abdul Majid Briesh, the late Basil Rahim (UK) and important others.

Maysaloun Faraj lives and works in London.

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