Hashel Al Lamki, Neptune, 2021, immersive video and audio installation, pigment on canvas and sculpture.
In this newly commissioned multidisciplinary work, Hashel Al Lamki charters various realms from the natural to the built and the imagined in order to foreground the scarcity of the earth's resources and the way that these events impact the human psyche. The artist contends that climate change is pressing mankind to reconsider their existence, imagining alternative realities grounded in nomadism, poetry and the quantum.
Neptune charters the journey of a man who took the decision to unbind himself from worldly duties and confines by adopting a lifestyle grounded in nomadism. Before he imparts upon this new pathway the central character must decide how to store surplus natural resources that he has recently discovered.
Al Lamki regularly incorporates natural pigments, sourced from the MENA region into his output producing his own unique colours in order to underscore the precious nature and fragility of our reserves. For this commission, Al Lamki's pigments pressed onto canvas, depict shimmering ethereal scenes - an underground parking lot, the view from a meeting room, a garden brimming with twinkling fruit. These pieces come into dialogue with a constellation of sculptural works that foreground the chaotic yet harmonious character of nature that the artist observes. Sculptural works are constructed from found objects - pistachio shells, popcorn, batteries, pills and burning incense - items found everywhere in the era of globalisation. These discarded items are stacked and placed above pedestals in order to question their social significance - they are at once everywhere and nowhere, cast aside down to the earth.
"We look, we gauge and we judge upon first glance, forming our own impressions of the landscape standing before us."
