Sara Naim, Lagoon Scene, 2021, plexiglass, C-type digital print, wood, 82.2 x 121.6 cm, edition of 1, 1AP
Rose Tinted introduces a new body of work by Sara Naim featuring photographs based on utopian scenes that don't entirely correspond with their sculpted forms. For the last time after six years, Naim uses plexiglass, wood and print in her wall and floor-based artworks, which contain imagery related to food, land, and objects depicted in an idealised form.
Traversing both gallery floors, a tension arises between the perception of something and its existence. Against the stark truth, however, any utopian notion is soon overturned. The human tendency to project one's own vision onto the world, for example to visualise it in a softer, forgiving light, often means tinted lenses generate a mask.
Naim analyses how our viewpoints are shaped by our perception, and how we rarely regard anything as it genuinely is. Both consciously and unconsciously, we project our expectations, desires or aversions onto an experience, in turn, that influences our individual narrative of truth. Greek philosopher Plato's Theory of Forms (308 BC) provides a framework for this artist's examination of delusion and reality by means of simplified, cartoonish language. All we witness, according to Plato, takes the form of an ideal beyond time and space that can only be accessed by the mind.
Words by Vanessa Murrel
To read the full essay by Vanessa Murrell click here:
Sara Naim, Rose Tinted, installation view at The Third Line (2022)
There are a variety of colliding images on the ground floor, from the communal Table Scene (2021) to the intimate Bouquet Scene (2021). In the first, lemons perch haphazardly atop an uneven bowl, distorted and distended along the dripping tablecloth. In the second, a bouquet of six distinct flowers is presented, held by a hand that also grasps two tiny blossoms. By enlarging the scale of the bouquet, it embodies an overwhelming expression of love and emotional offering.
“My dad's hand is used in the 'Bouquet Scene'. I wanted to hint at that charge objects have based on the meaning we apply to them, but which are contrasted by their objective form.”
- Sara Naim
Sara Naim, Rose Tinted, installation view at The Third Line (2022)
Sara Naim, Rose Tinted, installation view at The Third Line (2022)
A sense of déjà vu dominates the upper floor, as the mind recalls the expectations from downstairs. In Apero Scene (2021), a grazing platter featuring cheese, grapes, and wine evokes the excitement of a Parisian feast.
Sara Naim, Rose Tinted, installation view at The Third Line (2022)
“After living in Paris for 5 years I wanted to make a work that echos this exoticisation of the 'apero moment'. The cartoonish thought bubble of a sunset sets the tone of the ideal moment with their ideal objects.”
- Sara Naim
Sara Naim, Rose Tinted, installation view at The Third Line (2022)
Each artwork is divided and united by visible silver screws. In doing so, she highlights the isolation of the elements and provides a metaphor to the constructed image. Yet the back is composed of a singular continuous piece of wood, providing unity among fragmentations. Two sides of visual perception are put into stark relief: the nostalgic aspects of rose-coloured vision clash with the freeing, but painful, truths that can be uncovered through unbiased observation. Naim's exhibition illustrates the idea and act of pure observation to achieve a both meaningful and memorable sight, without actually being either.