Using tapestry, tassels and steel as a metaphor for the malleability of identity, Nour Jaouda’s first solo exhibition in London, “Where, if not far, is my place? superimposes silhouettes of architectural elements from Cairo (where the Libyan-born artist grew up) into objects that combine elements of painting, collage and sculpture. The artist hand-dyes cottons and cut canvases, on which she traces patterns like the outlines of the wooden trellises of traditional mashrabiya windows or arches that decorate the domed interiors of mosques. She suspends fabrics from twisted steel rods, repurposed straight from ancient Cairo gates and fences, to create standing structures that invoke portals to a nameless elsewhere.
As long as our tears are songs when we cry them, 2023, a body of nine cement slates fixed to the wall, presents delicate organic forms that seem to flow and congeal, extending the artist’s experimentation with materiality. Other fabric works are inspired by the Islamic prayer rug, an object that can be rolled up, stored and unrolled to transform the space from the mundane to the sacred. Jaouda hangs the textiles so that they protrude from the wall. Rather than two-dimensional rugs, they suggest doorways to the memory of the artist, refreshing the well-worn cultural symbolism of the prayer rug.
Jaouda’s reconfiguration of cultural signifiers manages to evoke a sense of belonging without going into detail. Rather, it attempts to bring a new geography into existence – the illusory ‘distant’ of the exhibition’s title – as a site where the artist can come to terms with his own sense of liminality and lack of belonging.
