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Lot Essay
In his works, the Algerian artist Driss Ouadahi tackles the issues of the built milieu and the urban alienation by depicting sterile Modernist buildings, structures, wire nettings and underground passages set in a surrealistic environment, thus revealing their paradoxical beauty.
Through his depiction of landscapes, fences and underpasses with symmetrical lines and a subtle transparency, the artist highlights the core principles of geometric abstraction and metaphorically revisits the traditional iconography of the veil. His well-known series portraying high-rise buildings as constructions made of steel, glass and concrete referred to the legacy of Modernist architecture and highlight the failure of the social housing developments. His landscapes, montages of spaces and places he knows or has visited that have left a great impact on his journey as an artist, depict his surroundings through interlinking mosaics of transparency and light, using a palette of pastels and sky blue hues.
Driss Ouadahi's layering of planes creates space and perspective. His fences recall the wire-netting commonly seen near the 'habitations loyer modéré' (housings at moderated rents) in the metropolitan suburbs of Algeria and France. Denoting zones whereby entrance is not permitted, fences demarcate privileged areas. Similarly to the social construction projects in North Africa which comprise of buildings where displaced rural populations are accommodated, or the housing projects in Europe destined to retain the immigrant populations at a distance from the centre of the city, Ouadahi's compositions allude to the politics of class and the division between ethnicities and religions. As such, beyond his striking depictions of buildings and urban structures, he sheds a light on the issue of separation and social discrimination.
In the present work, the artist depicts larger than life chain-link fencing with subtle brushstrokes and defined lines, hence revealing the duality of the structure that simultaneously reminisces the delicacy of lace fabrics whilst being strong, tightly knit and essentially fierce. Through a minimalist rendition of the fence, the artist critiques the issues of separation within the society and the urban landscape and evokes the
restricted flexibility in movement in contemporary global cultures.
Through his depiction of landscapes, fences and underpasses with symmetrical lines and a subtle transparency, the artist highlights the core principles of geometric abstraction and metaphorically revisits the traditional iconography of the veil. His well-known series portraying high-rise buildings as constructions made of steel, glass and concrete referred to the legacy of Modernist architecture and highlight the failure of the social housing developments. His landscapes, montages of spaces and places he knows or has visited that have left a great impact on his journey as an artist, depict his surroundings through interlinking mosaics of transparency and light, using a palette of pastels and sky blue hues.
Driss Ouadahi's layering of planes creates space and perspective. His fences recall the wire-netting commonly seen near the 'habitations loyer modéré' (housings at moderated rents) in the metropolitan suburbs of Algeria and France. Denoting zones whereby entrance is not permitted, fences demarcate privileged areas. Similarly to the social construction projects in North Africa which comprise of buildings where displaced rural populations are accommodated, or the housing projects in Europe destined to retain the immigrant populations at a distance from the centre of the city, Ouadahi's compositions allude to the politics of class and the division between ethnicities and religions. As such, beyond his striking depictions of buildings and urban structures, he sheds a light on the issue of separation and social discrimination.
In the present work, the artist depicts larger than life chain-link fencing with subtle brushstrokes and defined lines, hence revealing the duality of the structure that simultaneously reminisces the delicacy of lace fabrics whilst being strong, tightly knit and essentially fierce. Through a minimalist rendition of the fence, the artist critiques the issues of separation within the society and the urban landscape and evokes the
restricted flexibility in movement in contemporary global cultures.