aab ~ water
Paintings & Installation
2014-2018
As is always the case in Ahmad Rafi’s multi-layered and complex artistic position, it didn‘t remain a purely natural reflection. He engaged with a traditional philosophical concept that interprets flowing water as the embodiment of human existence and as a symbol of time passing. The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraklit (ca, 550 – 480 BC) compared everything ‘being’ to the flowing river and said: „One cannot step into the same river twice.“
For Heraklit flowing water was also emblematic of the transitoriness of everything earthly. “Panta rhei” – everything flows, nothing stays the same. In the middle of this analysis Ahmad Rafi decided to take a trip to Lampedusa, the largest of the Pelagie Islands, situated between Tunisia and Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea.
book series – water paintings
Installation view, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, 2016
Book objects, 14 pieces, each: 27 x 20 x 4 cm
water painting canvas
Installation view, Montez, 2018
Oil on canvas, 2017/2018, 77 x 100 cm
water paintings on canvas blue
Installation view, Montez, 2018
Oil on canvas, 2017/2018, 77 x 114 cm
Oil on canvas with neon light
Installation view, Montez, 2018
2016 – 2018, 150 x 200 cm
These two large formats stand out in the series, with daylight neon tubes across the paintings to achieve the desired light effect .
Video installation
“In the Flow of Things”
The fifteen minute video installation “In the Flow of Things” is almost an inevitable result of all the previous indications. The circulation of water is complete. The video installation leads us back to Alt-Fechenheim on the river Main. It was filmed parallel to the making of the paintings, and addresses his own personal experiences and views.