Faatimah Mohamed-Luke is a visual artist and designer whose aim is to reintroduce the art form of tessellation in a thoroughly modern way, utilizing plastic building blocks to create large-scale artworks. She enjoys challenging the views of materiality and what constitutes an artistic medium while elevating the humble children’s toy into a nostalgic visual feast.
Jenn Singer is pleased to present Faatimah Mohamed-Luke: ReCollection, an online solo exhibition of new wall sculptures by South African artist Faatimah Mohamed-Luke. Mohamed-Luke asks the question, “what would it look like if our artworks were looted today”? To create modern-day African antiquities, the artist known for her wall sculptures created with Lego-like building blocks was inspired by the joy and nostalgia that came from growing up in South Africa in the 1990s.
The artist’s vibrant color palette is informed by the era’s iconic toys and sweets of her childhood in her home country; Gesiggies (“face sweets”), Zoo biscuits, Chappies bubble gum, Jelly Babies, Liquorice allsorts, Kewpie dolls, Troll dolls, and My Little Pony. Faatimah Mohamed-Luke celebrates the sweetness of her 90s childhood along with love and pride for her home continent, while acknowledging that “there is no shortage of painful memories that come from growing up in South Africa. However, most of my childhood memories involve beach days with a striped umbrella and running between the colorful houses in Bo-Kaap to the corner shop to buy sweets”.
With an ever-sunny outlook, the bright pops of color and smooth glossy texture of MohamedLuke’s plastic medium fit right in with her archetypal African masks, figures, and textures – and before us, we see the artist’s nostalgia-filled antiquities of the future. Visit jennsingergallery.com to view Faatimah Mohamed-Luke: ReCollection until May 13th or email info@jennsingergallery.com for more information about the artist and her work.
Image: AFRIKA by Faatimah Mohamed-Luke
About Author
