Colombian sculptor Claudia Hakim shows sculptures in metal at NGMA, New Delhi

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} New Delhi : Tocommemorate the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between India & Colombia , National Gallery of Modern Art presents Signsof Skin ; a solo show of metal sculpturesby Colombian sculptor Claudia Hakim from November 11, 2009 to November 30, 2009 at National Gallery of ModernArt, Jaipur House , India Gate, New Delhi .   Says Prof Rajeev Lochan, Director, NGMA: “ The constant factor in Claudia’sdifferent thematic investigations throughout the diverse stages of creative processis a sense of modular construction, geometry and purity. Claudia Hakim’ssculptures, a significant milestone in Colombia ’sartistic landscape, communicate a particularly rich artistic language in a clear,direct and concrete manner and are being shown in India for the first time.”   Beginning her artistic career inthe late 1970s, Claudia Hakim has explored different thematic interests andalways proposed precise and clear responses. In the creative process, she appliesher skill and clarity to the definition of the sculptural language. Shetransmits her ability to see beyond appearances through the diversity of herformal creations; constructing forms by building, weaving and assembling thedifferent elements which she later wraps and unwraps in a playful definition ofher sculptural aesthetics but, always within an essential modular format.   Hence, inspired by fabric weaving,jewellery (magnified necklaces and arm rings) and textiles, the sculptor manipulatesand transforms basic elements into superlative large sculptures with the use of rings, bolts, screws, nuts, springs, metallic sheets and steel mesh to create geometric shapes, triangles andcircles for her present exhibition. The work proposes a variety oforderly and rigorous geometrical forms. At times, the forms are looser, theymove more freely. The multiplication of forms leads, invariably, to a puristaesthetic proposal - clear, clean, defined. The tactile, sensorial appeal andthe malleability of the sculptures make them even richer and more magnificentenvironmental sculptures.   The themes that the sculptoraddresses and the new ideas that are suggested are conveyed to the visitor in amagical way, encouraging them to participate in her works. She has thecapability to induce senses to the point of generating a wish to interact withit and, even to caress them, by a spatiality that generates in the observer ashuddering surprise before leading the observer to immersing in the alwaysencouraging environment of fantasy. Perhaps the apparent contradiction that takesplace between the materials and the idea, without leaving aside an astonishingresult, establishes a game that has a playful intention and, in turn, anundertone of irony. In this process, the assembly of objects and the ensuingformal findings, that entangle with the most uplifting modernist tradition, hasallowed the artist to move about the twists and turns of a permanent essaywhich is in turn, and fed by a meticulous rigor, pushes away the results of anytype of formula, or of a conceptual monotony, to produce an endless number ofimages and insinuations.   The need to express herselfthrough a textile language, in which she makes the eastern expression of herlineage and the Andean richness of her living environment manifest, the artistis able to establish an unsettling grammar of geometries and suggestions thatbring to mind an untold number of associations with some of the large art movementsin the 20th century. It is a piece of work with an exceptional refinement,which endless readings establish many possible levels of interrelations withthe spectator based on a deep reasoning by the artist that, consequently,suggests a permanent reflection by the audience.   Thus, her piece of works exudesextraordinary formal freedom and suggests very long-winded paths. There is nodoubt that, based on what could be defined as a visual instigation establishedby a series of elements apparently unusual, Claudia Hakim ends by renderingvaluable, and especially audacious testimony, of the unending possibilitiesthat matter has when related to art and, in particular, with the plasticitythat, no doubt, struggles between abstraction and figuration, without losingsight, in any way, of a lucid dimension that fascinates the spectator.   Claudia Hakim is, thus, a weaverof dreams and of radiance, who works with materials that result from theindustry and from the overt contemporaneousness of everything that is relatedto technology. She proposes, in line with the great constructivists, all kindsof geometric and luminous abstractions thanks to the masterful use of spaces ororifices. It is then, a proposal that nourishes particularly from thatcounterpoint offered by light and opacity and that strives to give a newdimension to the creator-spectator and creator-space relationships, based onthe establishment of some sui generis environments, like immersed in a universe of fiction full of poetry, that arisefrom the interaction of everything that under other circumstances would have acommonplace and un-transcendental reading.   She oscillates between twoartistic proposals: bi-dimensionality and tri-dimensionality. This oscillationis typical of those who craft their work on the basis of the multiplication ofa basic element. Hakim understands the language of weaving, and she applies itand transports it to the realm of sculpture, where an oscillation is createdbetween the rigidity of the material and the flexibility of the results. Thereare hardly any Colombian artists who can handle such extremes. The power ofconviction, the passion and the creative charisma are the best weapons ofHakim’s sculptural communication. Another constant in her work is the presenceof industrial materials. During the years in which she worked with fibres(1978-1990), preparing the basic modular element implied weaving the fabric. Inthe last two decades, her work is being made out of industrial remnants. Formany, the use of industrial material involves recycling. In the hands ofClaudia Hakim, industrial refuse is turned into sculptures of tremendousartistic magnificence.  

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