British artist Rana Begum explores the relationship and conversations between surfaces, light and form | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

British artist Rana Begum explores the relationship and conversations between surfaces, light and form | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Anushree Majumdar |Updated: September 13, 2019 2:16:19 pm

British artist Rana Begum explores the relationship and conversations between surfaces, light and form

The 42-year-old British artist, who was born in Sylhet, Bangladesh, and moved to the UK when she was eight, advocates the Barthesian argument that the author/artist’s work belongs to the reader/viewer to interpret, free from the creator’s meaning or intent.

Rana Begum at the gallery. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

As she leads us through the space, Rana Begum doesn’t refer to her works by any titles. Her third solo exhibition in Mumbai is eight days away and the empty walls and floors at the Jhaveri Contemporary art gallery in Colaba are slowly coming to life. There are four high tables; each features a dome, a smaller orange-shaped sphere, and cylindrical-shaped objects made from exquisitely striated marble in different colours — white, pine green, rust, and black. “These were inspired by floats used by fishermen in St Ives in Cornwall. They come in all sorts of shapes and they are so light. But I wanted to transform them into something heavy,” she says.