Henna Nadeem

(selected by Mark Sealy)

London-based artist Henna Nadeem graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1993. Two of Nadeem's recent projects, 'Trees Water Rocks', 2004, and 'A Guide to Sundlerland', 2004 mark the diversity of her recent practice. 'Trees Water Rocks', a series of large-scale landscape collages, was recently installed in the ticket hall and subways of Piccadilly Circus Underground station. Combinations of found 'touristy' images of spectacular natural landscapes from Africa, America and Australia are overlaid by a decorative grid of multi-cultural motifs and patterns, borrowed from Islamic, Japanese and Moorish sources. 'A Guide to Sunderland', a series of photographs which function as an alternative biography of Sunderland, focuses on the relationship between local history/biography and how seemingly mundane places can become imbued with power through the cult of celebrity.

What is common to both projects is the technique of layering and the merging of fact with fiction, the real and the imaginary in a fusion of collage where the lines of cut appear to have become blurred or obscured. Nadeem seeks to mix and subvert cultural readings of her source imagery, making new and telling inferences.

Nadeem (b. 1966, Leeds) has undertaken residencies at Camden Art Centre, London, University of Sunderland (commissioned by Autograph and the University of Sunderland) and at the London Print Studio. Her work has been included in many group shows during the past ten years including I want! I want!, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland and touring (2003/4), and Landscape Trauma in the Age of Scopophilia, Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery and The Gallery, London (2001-2002). Solo projects include trees water rocks, Piccadilly Circus Underground Station, London, 2004/5 and Billy Bragg, Billboard, Project Art Space, Dublin, 2004.

Nadeem currently has a solo show at the Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance (19 March 23 April), and will exhibit in the forthcoming show, The Beautiful Script, Dray Walk, London, 29 April - 8 May 2005.

March 2004

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