ANOKA FARUQEE
Faruqee's earlier work involved making and replicating paintings and presenting them as diptychs or triptychs. The duplicate paintings varied from the "originals," slightly or obviously, in size, color, or method of production. Faruqee's newer works are comprised of tripod or asterisk forms painted by hand. The forms compress from left to right on subtly increasing curves, whose shape and direction develop during the act of painting.
From a distance, these paintings resemble blurred airbrushed surfaces, electronic prints, or even spontaneous pours of paint; only at a closer look can one perceive that they are handmade. The surfaces are covered with small marks mechanized through obsessive repetition and confinement of the hand. Existing in a frustrated relationship to expression, these pixilated gestures also allude to a numerical language common to computer technology as well as weaving and Islamic tiling.
I'm interested in an active use of material not a passive acceptance of dogma or quotation. For example, I make my gestures in the shape of six pointed asterisks or three pointed tripods. They derive from Islamic tile geometry. Many people ask about the role of Islamic patterns in my work, expecting a kind of cultural posturing. Yes, I am second generation Bangladeshi-American with an Islamic heritage. Yes, I grew up around patterns in embroidery, rugs, and saris. My interest in Pattern painting came from looking at Persian and Moghul miniatures, although I came to those via Matisse.
So why is the use of Islamic geometry in my work almost invisible? Why isn't it more obvious or iconic? Because Islamic geometry is in itself willfully anti-iconic, whether developed in antithesis to Christian icons, in adherence to the historical ban on images, or as mathematical perfection describing weightless, infinite space. Where else would one turn to for such highly evolved and distilled tessellations? I turned to them because of their ability to yield geometry through painterly and calligraphic mark making. Because someone centuries ago spent a good amount of time playing with a ruler and a compass, I can lift from that tradition a kind of readymade handmade pixel. Those experiments were indeed the mathematical forerunners of current digital technology. I'm not interested in merely quoting or "describing" these forms, forever suspending them in their historical moment. I use them in the present tense for what they are and what they can become.
--Anoka Faruqee
From a distance, these paintings resemble blurred airbrushed surfaces, electronic prints, or even spontaneous pours of paint; only at a closer look can one perceive that they are handmade. The surfaces are covered with small marks mechanized through obsessive repetition and confinement of the hand. Existing in a frustrated relationship to expression, these pixilated gestures also allude to a numerical language common to computer technology as well as weaving and Islamic tiling.
I'm interested in an active use of material not a passive acceptance of dogma or quotation. For example, I make my gestures in the shape of six pointed asterisks or three pointed tripods. They derive from Islamic tile geometry. Many people ask about the role of Islamic patterns in my work, expecting a kind of cultural posturing. Yes, I am second generation Bangladeshi-American with an Islamic heritage. Yes, I grew up around patterns in embroidery, rugs, and saris. My interest in Pattern painting came from looking at Persian and Moghul miniatures, although I came to those via Matisse.
So why is the use of Islamic geometry in my work almost invisible? Why isn't it more obvious or iconic? Because Islamic geometry is in itself willfully anti-iconic, whether developed in antithesis to Christian icons, in adherence to the historical ban on images, or as mathematical perfection describing weightless, infinite space. Where else would one turn to for such highly evolved and distilled tessellations? I turned to them because of their ability to yield geometry through painterly and calligraphic mark making. Because someone centuries ago spent a good amount of time playing with a ruler and a compass, I can lift from that tradition a kind of readymade handmade pixel. Those experiments were indeed the mathematical forerunners of current digital technology. I'm not interested in merely quoting or "describing" these forms, forever suspending them in their historical moment. I use them in the present tense for what they are and what they can become.
--Anoka Faruqee
.jpg)
2012P-017, 2012
.jpg)
2012P-017 (Detail), 2012
.jpg)
2012P-04, 2012
.jpg)
2012P-010, 2012
 (PS+LR).jpg)
2012P-016, 2012
.jpg)
2012P-015, 2012
.jpg)
2012P-011, 2012
 (PS+LR).jpg)
2012P-05, 2012
.jpg)
2012P-014, 2012
Pink S-Curve, 2010
Longest Day of the Year, 2010
Equator, 2010
Corbelled Arch, 2010
Freehand Fade to Gatorade Blue Ground, 2007
Freehand Asterisks Painting (Getting Smaller), 2004
Freehand Fade to Light Yellow Ground, 2007
Big Brush Painting and Small Brush(CMY), 2004
With and Without a Grid, 2003
Pour Painting and Copy, 2002
The Longest Day of the Year, 2010
The Longest Day of the Year, 2010
The Longest Day of the Year, 2010
The Longest Day of the Year, 2010
