FUTURE GALLERY

ParameterChant

Kareem Lotfy, Brenna Murphy

31 Oct. – 28 Nov. 2015

Future Gallery is proud to present ParameterChant featuring new works by Brenny Murphy and Kareem Lotfy in a duo show.

Brenna Murphy scrutinizes the world of ancient symbolism and the patterns and geometries that are found in nature and transferred to human artifacts. These recurrent forms are found in architecture, alphabets, diagrams, urbanism, ornamental designs, and they expand to the physical aspect of technology in the way electronic circuits and computer processors look. She blends these visual references in intricate labyrinthine objects with no sense of limit or definite outline, as they appear to be sections of larger systems of complexity. Exploiting digital aesthetics and displaying technology as an extension of both nature and culture, this becomes a correlative picture of the integrating dynamic of the network society.  The labyrinths she creates are translated into floor installations and two-dimensional prints on alu-dibond, displaying 3D objects arranged in a virtual space. They remind us of traditionally crafted carpets, mandala, and the architecture of ancient latin american civilizations, recalling religious and occult meditation practices from different cultures, all weaved and rendered into a seeming abstraction.

Kareem Lotfy creates digital drawings and collages that bring together calligraphy, symbolism and digital graphic effects, blending iconic forms of everyday culture, corporate branding and digital materiality. In this exhibition, he presents two vinyl wall pieces that refer to processes of identity branding, and several prints that depict a disfigurement of arabic writing in a blend of western culture allusions.
As an Egyptian artist in a european context, Kareem Lofty encounters the western assumption of a fixed identity ascribed to arabic countries, which has dictated the general consideration of his work under that scope.This biased perception of arabic culture as a categorical impression is integrated in his work, together with the observation of a reverse operation.The use of traditionally western technologies of branding are being absorbed and applied for the publicity of political endeavors, through the use of graphic design language and the codes of the pop and rap music industry. Inversely, the appropriation of arabic script is used by branding strategies for its apparent implicit subversive attributes.

The distinct use of cultural symbols and signs by both artists, which is initiated by diverse motivations and starting points, results in rendered abstraction of a correlative visual language.

Install view
Sky~Lattice Chant Array, 2014, Brenna Murphy, Custom printed blanket, mirrors, 3D prints, Dimensions variable
Sky~Lattice Chant Array, 2014, Brenna Murphy, Custom printed blanket, mirrors, 3D prints, Dimensions variable
Flow~Coordinate Lattice, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Custom printed blanket, mirrors, 3D prints, Dimensions variab
Flow~Coordinate Lattice, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Custom printed blanket, mirrors, 3D prints, Dimensions variable
56 Nights, 2015, Kareem Lotfy, Vinyl, 30 x 150 cm
PNL, 2015, Kareem Lotfy, Vinyl, 140 x 100 cm
Untitled, 2015, Kareem Lotfy, Diasec, archival pigment print, 150 x 107 cm
Kafka, 2015, Kareem Lotfy, Diasec, archival pigment print, 150 x 107 cm
Gucci, 2015, Kareem Lotfy, Diasec, archival pigment print, 150 x 107 cm
AreaTransduce, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Framed archival pigment print, 34 x 42 cm
SequenceSource, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Framed archival pigment print, 50 x 42 cm
CorridorVehicle, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Framed archival pigment print, 71 x 71 cm
VesselConductor, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Framed archival pigment print, 70 x 64 cm
FrequencyFormatter, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Framed archival pigment print, 54 x 72 cm
LiquidLadderSequencer, 2015, Brenna Murphy, Framed archival pigment print, 51 x 68 cm
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