Artists Ellie Niblock (UK) and Alaa Tarazbouni (Saudi Arabia) collectively explore the environment both digital and physical through the lens of sculpture and architecture. With Love: From Nowhere is an exploration into unknowable places of the not yet, translating an impossible physical experience of visiting the fictional non-places through the combination of drawing, sculpture, 3D scanning, mapping and sound; thus, making the imaginary, intangible spaces comprehendible through the virtual domain. The artists utilised their multidisciplinary skills to create a digital experience that is accessible to an international audience, embodying online, collective work that demonstrates alternative ways of collaboration, allowing both artists to transcend borders both physically and metaphorically. The artists relied heavily on social media platforms, video calls and instant messaging to share inspiration and develop the work. The artists also used more traditional modes of communication, by using the postal service; found objects were sent from Saudi Arabia to the UK to create hybrid, handheld, sculptural objects. They were used as the foundations for the non-place, as they were thoroughly translated in various ways to allow for the comprehension of the non-places.
Ellie Niblock
Ellie Niblock (Northern Ireland, 1993) is an artist living and working in London and has just finished an MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Ellie completed a BA Hons in Textile Art, Design and Fashion in 2015, receiving a First Class honours. She has participated in both solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including working with venues such as The Mark Rothko Centre, Tate Modern and The V&A. She was the first artist from Northern Ireland to be awarded an art residency to India in 2016, by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and British Council. She recently sold work to The Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their permanent collection.
Ellie’s practice explores the relationship between the physical and the digital worlds and how they co-exist. It seeks to discover how tactility and digital technology can alter our perception of experiences through sculpture, 3D scanning, animation and sound.
Alaa Tarabzouni
Influenced by her academic background and training in architecture, Alaa Tarabzouni’s practice is concerned with urbanity and the built environment. Traditionally trained as an architect, with both a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in architecture from Newcastle University in England and Pratt Institute in New York respectively.
Alaa considers context as her medium and it is consistently apparent in her practice; her most recent work Bait Al Wurud, was showcased at Durational Portrait at Athr Gallery in Jeddah and The Quest for Our Next Concern in Riyadh, and was a meditation on longing manifested in the recontextualization of architectural elements to the gallery space.
Al-Manakh, You Will Be Missed is Alaa and Fahad bin Naif’s first collaborative work and was shown at the 7th edition of 21,39 at the Saudi Art Council in Jeddah, 2020. The installation explores the foundations of a localized ecological crisis, permeated with the melancholy of subtle, yet constant, evolution.
In 2018 Alaa and Fahad set up Studio AF. in Riyadh, as a multidisciplinary art and design studio with a focus on local architectural and urban research and theory and contemporary regional art.
Related Projects
شَعر، شِعر