Galerie SANAA / Khatt خط (line/script) on the wall – solo Fatima Barznge

Fatima shows works on paper and on canvas, combined with the murals.

Study of Square (2017-2023), is a series central to this exhibition in which she explores the possibilities of geometric shapes, inspired by the visual image of medieval Islamic art and Western abstract art. Her free and soft geometric lines come from her fascination with the patterns and structures of textiles, weaving and embroidery, which used to be an essential part of Kurdish culture. In addition, she is showing a series of works from 2013- 2015, based on photographs she took in 2010, when she returned to her childhood home for the first time after the devastation. She was able to travel back to her childhood village of Aghjalar.

The idea to create murals comes from her work process in recent years on the theme of Islamic art and Calligraphy, most of which were created on wall. Furthermore, this year she was Artist- in- resident at the former home of Rotterdam artist Wally Elenbaas. Then she was inspired by the discoloured cracks and holes created in the walls by the passage of time. She associates it with the series of works Line on the wallby Iraqi artist Shakir Hassan Al Said(1935-2005), of which she has many memories.

Fatima’s murals are free sketches, they are background/underground to her work and are meant to add colour to the hard white walls. These sketches also add more dimension to her two- dimensional works. 

With the murals, she refers to two different emotions and experiences. On the one hand, the joy of a child drawing on a wall. On the other, the tragedy from the time of her childhood when people used a wall as a place and space for communication, illustration of thoughts and freedom of expression in a country of war and oppression. 

She wants to use the combination of works on paper, on canvas and mural to bring together the influences and relationship between different techniques and materials, between time and space, between the visual (perception) and the non-visual (memories).