Lot 60: Zakaria Rahmani (Morrocan, b. 1983)

Zakaria Rahmani (Morrocan, b. 1983)
Faces Of The Other
signed and dated 'Ramhani 08' (lower left)
acrylic on canvas
94½ x 78¾in. (240 x 200cm.)
Painted in 2008

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"I use Arabic (my mother tongue) and French (the language of the Other) as audio-visual material to be transformed by paint as it touches the canvas and by my voice, using sound software. I create a series of visual and audio portraits that centre on questions related to the multiplication and division of the identity of the human being.
The words, letters and sounds form a haphazard collection from which emerge a face and a voice. The language becomes readable and unreadable, audible and inaudible, comprehensible and incomprehensible. It gives depth (layers) to the portrait and concretises the incomprehensible part between the self and the Other, between the self and its Other. The painting becomes a "specifications notebook", a first draft that defines a look, a nose, a forehead, hair and ears The letter and the face each in turn become illusion. I use a script that takes the form of sketches as opposed to calligraphy, which has an aesthetic and traditional aspect and in which letter and word are separate entities. Based on the freedom of movement and of the voice, whose rhythm follows the creation of an idea, the linguistic symbols and the resonance of sounds take on an expressive and narrative quality that I seek as an artist. By establishing a dialogue between painting, writing and sound, I also aspire to confront, question and renew the art of painting and its place within the context of contemporary art."
Zakaria Rahmani