Translated Roots
Shireen Taweel
Translated Roots
6 April - 26 April, 2017
Musallah, 2017, Pierced copper, 174 x 174 x 30cm, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: A metal sculpture hangs in the gallery from the ceiling, low to the ground. It is a long copper sheet that has been bent into a circle. In the sheet, a pattern of repeating shapes have been cut out of it. The pattern resembles Islamic art.
Artist Statement
Translated Roots conveyed aspects of 'traditional' identity through the acknowledgment of early Australian settlers from the greater Muslim community, highlighting the complexity of change through the sense of transience for those who migrate to sow their roots within a new context of a greater global community. Musallah formed by hand from sheet copper partakes in a cross-cultural discourse, while its sense of the arcane and shifted structure opens dialogue between shared histories and communities of fluid identities.
Musallah, 2017, Pierced copper, 174 x 174 x 30cm, detailed shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: Close up of a sculpture made out of pierced copper. The long sheet of copper has been bent into a circle, and shows a pattern of repeating shapes that have been cut out of it. The pattern resembles Islamic art.
“My enquiry addresses how sacred space shifts and changes through experiences of transience. My practice focuses on the process of metallurgy, specifically copper, as the material speaks a richness of ancient traditions. I have spent five years honing my metalworking skills to increase my technique and knowledge so that I may produce works of simple form and refined detail. My sources of inspiration are from my own cultural heritage within the Islamic Decorative Arts. Through each series of sculptures, I partake in a dialogue that navigates the dualities of identity and the constantly transformative psyche of the internal landscape through geographical shifts and change. Sourcing from my Lebanese heritage and Muslim identity is a cultural dialogue situated between Eastern and Western structures of society and faith, where the sculptures break the doctrines and open interactivity between cultures. My methods of making are integral to the fluidity and continuous movement one experiences within the diaspora. The traditional process embedded in my practice through the hand made, decorative piercing and soldering as joinery embodies an architectural language influenced by the space-time essence of sacred spaces between the Arab Muslim societies and settlement in an AngloCeltic dominated Australia. Each of my projects aims to discover the connectivity of personal experiences of migration embedded within the global community.”
Shireen Taweel
Musallah, 2017, Pierced copper, 174 x 174 x 30cm, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: A metal sculpture hangs in the gallery from the ceiling, low to the ground. It is a long copper sheet that has been bent into a circle. In the sheet, a pattern of repeating shapes have been cut out of it. The pattern resembles Islamic art.
Musallah, 2017, Pierced copper, 174 x 174 x 30cm, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: A metal sculpture hangs in the gallery from the ceiling, low to the ground. It is a long copper sheet that has been bent into a circle. In the sheet, a pattern of repeating shapes have been cut out of it. The pattern resembles Islamic art.
Musallah, 2017, Pierced copper, 174 x 174 x 30cm, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: A metal sculpture hangs in the gallery from the ceiling, low to the ground. It is a long copper sheet that has been bent into a circle. In the sheet, a pattern of repeating shapes have been cut out of it. The pattern resembles Islamic art.