Paintings & Installation, 2014 – 2018,
book series – water paintings, water painting canvas,
water paintings on canvas blue, Oil on canvas with neon light
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.
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book series – water paintings
Book objects, 14 pieces, each: 27 x 20 x 4 cm
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water painting canvas
Installation view, Montez, 2018Oil on canvas, 2017/2018, 77 x 100 cm
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water paintings on canvas blue
Installation view, Montez, 2018Oil on canvas, 2017/2018, 77 x 114 cm
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Oil on canvas with neon lightneon
Installation view, Montez, 20182016 – 2018, 150 x 200 cm The two large formats stand out in the series. Ahmad Rafi had already broached the subject of the ships graveyard in the “miniature paintings”. Here he is on land, but water still plays a pivotal role.
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Video Installation “In the Flow of Things”
For Heraklit flowing water was also emblematic of the transitoriness of everything earthly. “Panta rhei” – everything flows, nothing stays the same.
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Fata Morgana
Painting installationBook installation, 12 parts, 2019-2020, Oil on book covers, each 28 x 22 x 4 cm. The 12-part painting installation presents the river landscape of the Rhine in fog. The pictures, which make up a 12-part art history volume, are depicted on book covers and show the Rhine in a winter mood between Kehl and Strasbourg.