Rana Begum, commission for curving stairwell, Pictet Group, London, 2015

As Curatorial Associate with the Contemporary Art Society, Jeni Walwin advises the Pictet Group on their London Collection. The wall relief has been commissioned especially for the curving stairwell space and it represents a development of the artist’s works where brightly coloured paints are applied to precise, parallel arrangements of powder-coated aluminium box sections. Here the sculptural installation plays with the architecture of the space, encouraging an interactive experience for staff using the stairs. The approach from one direction will offer bright hues; whereas moving the other way the colour will appear more muted; and on facing the work full on, all colour will disappear, save for a reflected halo on the white wall.

Begum’s work defies easy categorization, but two significant visual references can be assumed here. The artist attributes her longstanding aesthetic interest in simplicity, geometry, symmetry and repetition to her childhood experiences of Islamic art and architecture in the Bangladesh mosques which she remembers as bare and simple, but awash with light. As an artist she has combined these visual references with her subsequent study of Minimalist structures to realise her own sophisticated language of abstraction that cleverly combines a sense of the vitality of 21st century city life with the quiet calm of ancient traditions.

Rana Begum, No. 592, 2015
Installation views
Paint on powder-coated aluminium
36 sections, 300 x 800 x 5 cm