Timo Nasseri
Timo Nasseri’s Art Dubai Portrait exhibition explores his most recent body of work, A Universal Alphabet.
Timo Nasseri’s Art Dubai Portrait exhibition explores his most recent body of work, A Universal Alphabet.
Watch Timo Nasseri’s Art Dubai Portrait in his hometown of Berlin as he walks us through his practice, process and inspiration.
Timo Nasseri’s latest project, A Universal Alphabet, reflects on the universality of geometrical patterns. Experimenting with matter, he deciphers a visual code that brings these shapes to life through two-dimensional painting works, three-meter-high sculptures, or breaks them apart in a multitude of black folded metal signs.
A Universal Alphabet — 2019
Exhibition view, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut.
The project takes as a starting point the patterns of the Razzle Dazzle, a camouflage used during World War I on boats, which was supposed to prevent the enemy from estimating their exact heading and position.
The patterns consisted of geometrical shapes painted in contrasting colours.
Three different people later claimed their authorship:
The first one was the british painter Norman Wilkinson. He served in 1916 on a ship of the Royal Navy, when six ships scuttled by German U-boats every day. He developed the patterns to confuse the submarines when targeting the ships.
The second was the zoologist Sir John Graham Kerr, who researched animal patterns and camouflage and proposed such patterns to the Royal Navy two years before Wilkinson did. At the time the navy rejected him. After the war, Kerr claimed to be the original inventor and sued Wilkinson. Kerr lost the case and is almost forgotten now.
The third was Pablo Picasso. In early 1917, Picasso and Getrude Stein walked down the harbour of Marseilles. When Picasso spotted one of the camouflaged ships he yelled out loud: ‘They stole my idea!’.
Three different people later claimed their authorship:
This peculiar story has led Nasseri to deconstruct the camouflage patterns to their smallest unit...
This peculiar story has led Nasseri to deconstruct the camouflage patterns to their smallest unit...
Further influences came from the lines and colours that appear carry the echo of indigenous cultures in mirrored patterns from Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Revealing a graphical alphabet used around the globe from different cultures across different times.
Until it reached European warships at the turn of the 20th century.
Nasseri took the original Razzle Dazzle camouflage designs and gave them back their power. As demons, gods and protectors. By mirroring the basic geometrical forms, he developed hybrids between an insect, traditional mask, demon or a totem.
Using the mirrored patterns Nasseri came across in the different cultural motifs, as well as the symmetry found in nature, he creates distinct, boldly-coloured paintings that deconstruct the found geometrical forms.
A UNIVERSAL ALPHABET — 2019
exhibition view, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut.
DAZ0010 — 2018
Acrylic on canvas
275 × 158 cm
DAZ0022 — 2018
Acrylic on canvas
275 × 158 cm
DAZ0034 — 2018
Acrylic on canvas
275 × 158 cm
DAZ0051 — 2018
Acrylic on canvas
275 × 158 cm
DAZ0039 — 2018
Acrylic on canvas
210 x 140 cm
DAZ0026 — 2018
Acrylic on canvas
210 x 140 cm
Nasseri started taking the geometrical shapes of the original Razzle Dazzle camouflage designs apart and looked at their smaller units, ending up with what he calls ‘A Universal Alphabet.’ So far, he has a collection of 750 of these letters, which he had cut from metal and placed on a wall.
The Order of Everything —
2019
Painted steel
The order of everything (detail)
2019
Painted steel
The work is available as a single column, a set of 9 or as a full installation
Single column: 200 x 10 x 6 cm
Set of 9 columns: 200 x 200 x 6 cm
Full installation: 200 x 1150 x 6 cm
Some of the letters developed into sculptures, including a series of large free-standing ones, which Nasseri sees as ‘taking care, as guards… as keepers’.
UNIVERSAL ALPHABET - 2019
Exhibition view, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut.
KEEPER 1 — 2019
Painted steel
318 x 190 x 78 cm
KEEPER 3 — 2019
Painted steel
311 x 164 x 90 cm
KEEPER 2 – 2019
Installation view, Garten der Gegenwart, Hamburg 2020.
The development of the Keepers comes with considerations around scale and material, with recent ceramic and string iterations taking on new etymological meanings.
Lightblue-Red — 2019
Glazed ceramics, rope
44 x 20 x 20 cm
Collaboration with Franziska Furter
The development of the Keepers comes with considerations around scale and material, with recent ceramic and string iterations taking on new etymological meanings.
Through his work, Timo Nasseri uses the means of natural science to open up a perspective for the poetic and fantastic.
Giving particular attention to forms and aesthetics, his work discusses the infinity, boundlessness, transcendence and metaphysics in a wider context and writing as the beginning and the end. Combining Islamic and western cultural heritages, his work is inspired as much by specific memories and religious references as by universal archetypes described by mathematics and language, and the inner truths of form and rhythm.
Nasseri lives and works in Berlin.
Nasseri has participated in solo exhibitions at Stichting Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen (2018), Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2017), and AK Vienna (2016). His work has also been shown at numerous institutions globally including: LaM - Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, Villeneuve-d'Ascq (2019), Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017), Melbourne Triennale (2017), Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt (2016), KW-Kunstwerke, Berlin (2015), and the Drawing Room Biennial, London (2015). He was also the winner of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize in 2011.
Founded by Andrée Sfeir-Semler in 1985, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, with spaces in Beirut, Lebanon and Hamburg, Germany, concentrates on international contemporary art with an emphasis on conceptual and minimal art. For the last fifteen years, the gallery has been at the cutting edge of art production in the Arab World, nurturing a unique cross-cultural link between Western and Middle Eastern contemporary art practices.
It has taken on an integral role in establishing and developing the careers of key artists from the Arab world such as Walid Raad, Akram Zaatari, Wael Shawky, or Etel Adnan, launching pioneer solo exhibitions, gaining global exposure through participation in international biennials and exhibitions, and facilitating acquisitions by major museums around the world. The gallery simultaneously nurtures a younger generation of artists, including Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Mounira al Solh and Rayyane Tabet for example, thus expanding its program and its history of innovation. In addition, the gallery’s roster includes some of the pillars of the Arab modern period such as MARWAN, Youssef Abdelké and Aref el Rayess, as well as covering the socio· politically charged works of contemporary artists such as Yto Barrada, Taysir Batniji, Khalil Rabah, Rabih Mroué or Marwan Rechmaoui.
Unless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy of Sfeir-Semler Gallery and the artist.
Sfeir-Semler Gallery
Tannous Building
Quarantina,
Lb-2077-7209
Beirut, Lebanon
T: +961 1 566 550
W. sfeir-semler.com
Sfeir-Semler Gallery
Admiralitätstrasse 71
D-20459 Hamburg
Germany
T: +49 40 37 51 99 40
W. sfeir-semler.com
Timo Nasseri in his studio in Berlin
To express interest in acquiring this artwork or learn more, please fill out the form below. A representative from Sfeir-Semler Gallery will be in touch with you.
Thank you for submitting your inquiry. A gallery representative will be in touch with you soon.
