Close-up of the central installation... Visited tonight an exhibition which like I haven't seen in Kuwait before. Taking place at the Sultan Gallery and showing the work by architect/ developer Tareq Al-Kandari (brother of the artist Ghada Al-Kandari) the exhibition consists of a composition of paintings, two black painted monoliths of stacked concrete bricks, a four tier wood and plexi-glass assembly (on top of a square, flat black, carpet), three video screens explaining the conception of the exhibition, and some guiding floor markings.
View of the exhibition from its entrance. The artist/ architect can be seen on the left of the image...
The text accompanying the exhibition outlines it in the following fashion:
"in an architectural context, an archetype is a generic idealized model of an object or basic element from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. the basic elements in this case are wall, floor, column, and a very special cube. grounded by facts and superimposed with expression, sans style represents an architectural vision of a place common to us all without the stylized instances that have developed over time.
the exhibit is a collaboration of several mediums including paintings, installations, and audio-visuals resulting in a complex experience of the senses. a total temporary retrofit of the gallery will take place to further enhance this ambition."
Detail of one of the paintings...
Without 'spoiling' (to those who haven't as of yet visited the exhibition) what the aforementioned archetype is referring to, the exhibition performs as an architectural-folly, of sorts - providing an inspired, well researched, erudite 'indulgence' (none of the pieces seem to be for sale) which clearly applies the iconography and sensitivities of an architectural approach, but hasn't been limited by its, occasionally restrictive, pragmatism. The exhibition represents and celebrates the fundamental and manifest 'spirit' of a particular architectural entity that usually manages to escape such analysis. It forms a spatial experience that is 'occupied' rather than just viewed, where the experience of the various elements are perceived more through casual kinesthetic (ambulatory) awareness, motion and flow, instead of the usual sequential 'stop-and-observe' pace of a gallery visit. It also, in its realization, provides an inspired assimilation of the craftsman's unifying dictum which states, "one can do thinking without using ones hands, but not use ones hands without thinking", something quite evident in the precise and refined execution of the exhibitions various pieces.
Let's encourage and cultivate more events of this calibre in Kuwait...
The exhibition finishes at 2 PM on Thursday, June 28th...
The sand-blasted plexi 'porticoes' of the central installation...
View of the exhibition from its entrance. The artist/ architect can be seen on the left of the image... The text accompanying the exhibition outlines it in the following fashion:
"in an architectural context, an archetype is a generic idealized model of an object or basic element from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. the basic elements in this case are wall, floor, column, and a very special cube. grounded by facts and superimposed with expression, sans style represents an architectural vision of a place common to us all without the stylized instances that have developed over time.
the exhibit is a collaboration of several mediums including paintings, installations, and audio-visuals resulting in a complex experience of the senses. a total temporary retrofit of the gallery will take place to further enhance this ambition."
Detail of one of the paintings... Without 'spoiling' (to those who haven't as of yet visited the exhibition) what the aforementioned archetype is referring to, the exhibition performs as an architectural-folly, of sorts - providing an inspired, well researched, erudite 'indulgence' (none of the pieces seem to be for sale) which clearly applies the iconography and sensitivities of an architectural approach, but hasn't been limited by its, occasionally restrictive, pragmatism. The exhibition represents and celebrates the fundamental and manifest 'spirit' of a particular architectural entity that usually manages to escape such analysis. It forms a spatial experience that is 'occupied' rather than just viewed, where the experience of the various elements are perceived more through casual kinesthetic (ambulatory) awareness, motion and flow, instead of the usual sequential 'stop-and-observe' pace of a gallery visit. It also, in its realization, provides an inspired assimilation of the craftsman's unifying dictum which states, "one can do thinking without using ones hands, but not use ones hands without thinking", something quite evident in the precise and refined execution of the exhibitions various pieces.
Let's encourage and cultivate more events of this calibre in Kuwait...
The exhibition finishes at 2 PM on Thursday, June 28th...
The sand-blasted plexi 'porticoes' of the central installation... 
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