An example of one of the large-scale wall paintings on display featuring hybrid creature-like forms. Courtesy BALTIC
Exhibition preview: The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Energy's Evil - Mona Marzouk at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art until Sunday April 27 2008
The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead, is hosting the first UK exhibition by Egyptian artist, Mona Marzouk.
'The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Energy’s Evil' focuses on issues pertaining to energy as the currency of power and life, and debates much talked about issues, including energy consumption, waste, pollution and global warming.
Mona Marzouk, a painter, sculptor and installation artist, studied in Egypt, Germany and Greece, and as a consequence her work incorporates various architectural, mythological and technological inspirations. In her work she imagines an alternative to cultural difference – a hybridised future.
A close up of one creature-like forms inspired by various architectural and cultural histories. Some have been inspired by local landmarks. Courtesy BALTIC
Her site-specific exhibition at BALTIC includes two large-scale wall paintings, audio elements and a projected animated short film. The film is very organic in nature and includes a creature-like entity, seemingly tied down by connecting tubes, which is an extension of the ideas running throughout the exhibition.
She presents somewhat sinister zones where fuels, production facilities, animals and even some architectural landmarks of NewcastleGateshead have been used metaphorically. Creature-like forms that resemble icons of the area, were created specifically for the exhibition and include a multi-limbed creature, resembling the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.
Marzouk explains: “I think bodies, like buildings and constructions, have their own architectural logic. The way each element is joined to the next and the way the elements get to become a unified whole that is functional in that it breathes, stays alive, moves and reproduces.”
This is an exhibition preview. If you've been to see this show, why not let us know what you think?
