Event date: 27 May 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm
Rana Begum RA
Organised as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2023, ncas was delighted to host a conversation between the Barbican’s Artistic Director, Will Gompertz and acclaimed visual artist, Rana Begum RA.
Born in Bangladesh in 1977, Rana Begum is a London-based artist whose work distils spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of minimalist abstraction, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture.
“I realised that my connection to light began very early on.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Begum described her earliest influences and the development of her practice, focussing on the importance of light which is fundamental in her work. She attributes her fascination with light to her childhood in rural Bangladesh, which she left when she was eight, to settle in the UK. Begum states “I realised that my connection to light began very early on. I found it fascinating just to watch the change of light in the rice field, or the water of the bathing pool, which was always flooded in sunlight – I remember my mum telling me off when I sat there staring.”
Her first visual memory of the UK was light reflecting off snow, as the plane landed on the snowy airport runway. The enchanting, myriad ways that light gleams from different surfaces and spaces have remained her abiding obsession.
Educated at the University of Hertfordshire, the Chelsea College of Art and the Slade School of Art, Begum paid tribute to her tutors who encouraged her to work and experiment in various disciplines and mediums. While a student at Hertfordshire University she was particularly drawn to the work of American abstract artist Agnes Martin, it was also that year that she first became interested in the relationship between light, colour and form. Her visual language draws from the urban landscape as well as geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture. She is a huge proponent of maquettes which help visualise the interplay of light within and outside her installations.
Begum was first recognised internationally in 2017 when she was awarded the prestigious Abraaj prize at Art Dubai for her installation No 764 Baskets, which was subsequently installed in St Peter’s Church in Kettles Yard, Cambridge in 2018. Typical of her work, the resulting cocoon-like installation drew on childhood memories, in this case, of basket weaving in her village in Bangladesh, as well as time spent reading the Qur’an at the local mosque, where the dappled morning light, sound of the water fountain and the mesmeric recitation created an atmosphere of peaceful concentration.
Begum also discussed other installations including Piece No 670, rhythmical steel layers, part of her Space, Light and Colour show for the Sainsbury’s Centre 2016, No 814 coloured glass panels at the Frieze Sculpture Park, Regents Park London, 2018, Infinite Geometry No 1066 , an intricate brick pathway at the Wanas Art Foundation Sweden 2021, Catching Colour, suspended sprayed cloud like mesh at the Botanic Square, London City Island 2022, and, most recently, No 1225 Chainlink, an ephemeral yellow painted chain link fence structure at Desert X 2023, in Los Angelos’ Coachella Valley.
The variety of mediums used are a tribute to Begum’s early training and inclination to experiment. Her works effortlessly absorb and reflect varied densities of light to produce an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensorial.
Will Gompertz is a world-leading expert in the arts. Having spent seven years as a Director of the Tate Galleries followed by eleven years as the BBC's Arts Editor, he is now Director of Arts and Learning at the Barbican Theatre. As someone who did not develop an interest in art until adulthood, Gompertz is determined to dispel the layman’s fear of the modern art world and those who inhabit it. In his own words “I was a late starter” and only developed a life-long love of art after encountering Willem de Kooning’s, Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk museum when visiting with his then girlfriend, who he went on to marry.
Throughout his career, Will has focused on driving innovation and change, opening up the arts to the widest public. He has interviewed and observed many of the world's leading artists, actors, writers, musicians, and directors. He is the author of See what You’re Missing (2022), Think Like an Artist (2015) and What are you Looking At? (2012)
Will Gompertz
Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm