Between: Gail Spaien and Ahmed Alsoundani

amid, amidst, among, at intervals, bounded by, equidistant, enclosed by, halfway, in, in the midst of, inserted, mid, separating, surrounded by, transitional, within

Gail Spaien and Ahmed Alsoudani make images that attempt to visualize the margin between life and death. One depicts mortality as a natural part of the life cycle, the other as an interruption. One screams, the other is reserved. Both artists convey an underlying anxiety as seen in Spaien’s use of repetition and over-abundance, and Alsoudani’s energetic depictions of apocalyptic upheaval.

Using the natural world as her subject, Spaien portrays the kind of suspended space and time that one experiences being in nature - the movement of air, the tension between seasons, the gravity of light. Her landscapes reveal sensitive, serendipitous and immersive experiences in and with the out of doors and make evident the present moment as a constant state of between.

Alsoudani's work engages the question of how to depict life amidst extraordinary violence, chaos and disruption. Typically concerned with elements of suffering, rage and agression, Ahmed's paintings and drawings capture a palpable sense of helplessness and fear - ephemeral moments between brutality and the mundane, life and death.

Gail Spaien and Ahmed Alsoudani each construct a visceral truth about lived experience as an edge between.


 

November 2010