In her latest exhibition at the Saleh Barakat Gallery, ceramicist Samar Mougharbel hopes to showcase the triumph of art under challenging circumstances.
“Art de Triomphe,” Mougharbel’s recent series, explores the theme of exhaustion. The collection includes a series of clay miniatures depicting automobile exhaust pipes. All are bent, often beyond recognition. The warped pieces suggest both the exhaustion of living amid Lebanon’s multiple crises and an inability to work through trauma.
From Serwan Baran’s /A Harsh Beauty/ exhibition at the Saleh Barakat Gallery pic.twitter.com/YZUpKHqhmN
— Sarah. (@psygh) March 8, 2020
For an artist exploring the theme of exhaustion, Mougharbel has had a prodigious work year, producing 30 of the exhaust pipe pieces.
“My ideas come to me between falling asleep and waking,” she says. This year, “the ideas were flowing out of me ... I could not stop.”
Discussing her approach working with clay, Mougharbel says she doesn’t attempt to perfect and measure the material, but allows it to bend and fold as it wants.
“Gravity,” she says, “can go in all directions.”
Join me@ opening of my show at Saleh Barakat Gallery-Celemenceau, Dec 9th @HawiZeinab @PierreABISAAB @GhadaJabak @ghantous44 @amalandary @ pic.twitter.com/w0bAe4qmJn
— Ginane Bacho (@ginaneb47) December 4, 2016
Rather than simply employing different glazes, the artist also uses different types of clay in her work – though in this series, she admits, she experimented with a sugar glaze to create a light, crystal texture (“a creme brulee”) for one of her exhaust pipe pieces.
The 60-year-old Mougharbel is a technology evangelist and believes that artists should embrace new technology when creating art.
She used a 3D printer to create a large-scale, styrofoam version of one of her smaller ceramics. The artist hopes that a version of one of her exhaust pipes can be made for a park so that the public can interact with the bends and negative space of the arch in a public space.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
