SAHAR KHOURY

May 18 – June 21, 2018

Roll Up Project is pleased to present two installations by Sahar Khoury.

Khoury crafts powerful sculptures by combining materials including her signature textile/paper mache, ceramic, steel, and concrete. Her constructions highlight the unique qualities of each element – smooth steel armatures, cast concrete with craggy edges, clay dimpled and formed by hand. These sculptures allow a place for us to consider material, form, composition, and the mark of the hand in artwork.

In the main Roll Up Project window on Harrison Street, Khoury’s installation includes three artworks: Untitled (Bone Mould Relief), Untitled (Five and a Table), and Untitled (Receiver). They reveal different forms of evidence, as if unearthed by natural forces. At left, a wall relief contains tiles with linear and blocky forms reminiscent of pottery shards, bones, and rocks. A concrete and wire mesh platform holds one of the tiles horizontally, allowing the viewer to see the relief from a new angle. In the center of the window, five ceramic chains hang on a square metal frame with cast concrete edges. At right, a concrete block shaped like a radio receiver – complete with steel antenna – stands solemnly on a three-legged concrete and ceramic pedestal.

As an installation, these artworks offer the viewer a place to consider universal experiences and memories, such as the sound of heavy chains moving in the breeze, the texture of rocks, the crackle of static on a radio, the weight of concrete and steel, and more.

In the windows on Third Street, three more sculptures highlight Khoury’s thoughtful use of material and color. The bending bars and decorative arabesques of Untitled (Paper Security Bar) press against the window, providing no measure of security but rather a comical stand in. In the right window is Untitled (Stacked Zero One), a hollow black glazed ceramic shape consisting of interlocked loops. Khoury’s black and white paper mache sculpture Untitled (Infinity Whitney) is tucked away high in the corner, and serves as one of her earliest paper mache bicycle tire relief sculptures made in 2006.

Sahar Khoury lives and works in Oakland. She has exhibited around the country, most recently at the Berkeley Art Museum, The Wattis Institute, CANADA, and the Luggage Store Gallery. She received a BA in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz in 1996 and an MFA from UC Berkeley in 2013. She currently teaches sculpture at UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Learn more about her work at her website.

ON VIEW IN THE ROLL UP WINDOW

Untitled (Bone Mould Relief), 2018
cement
65 x 45 x 19 inches
Untitled (Five & a Table), 2018
concrete, steel, ceramic, textile cement, paper mache, and plastic mesh
35 x 35 x 15 inches
Untitled (Receiver), 2016
concrete
49 x 10 x 12 inches

ON VIEW IN THE SIDE WINDOWS

Untitled (Paper Security Bar), 2016
paper mache and paint
35 x 43 x 4 inches
Untitled (Stacked Zero One), 2018
glazed ceramic
20.5 x 8 x 8 inches
Untitled (Infinity Whitney), 2007
paper mache and paint
32 x 9 x 2 inches