Ranya Sarakbi - Lebanon
Nationality
: Lebanese.
Date of Birth
: 28/3/1973.
The city is an organism, as man is. The intricate network of passages, connecting interdependent essential “organs”, is much like the nuclear structure of cells. The field that lies between these central functions and the outer rim make up what we call a city, in biology, a cell. The city has the same rounded elasticity of cells. In biology just as in architecture, the organism is porous. Our walls and buffer zones are similar to endoplasmic reticula and cell membranes. Nature is replete with concentric models. From cell biology to sequences in fractal geometry to the anatomy of black holes, the diagrams are similar. Man has an intrinsic predilection for organic imagery, and is predisposed to build in the image of his biological makeup. The instinct for structure comes with the instinct to nest. Man’s behavior resembles this structure. The idea of traffic - efficient movement, is evident in all structural models; cells, animals, families, cities, even galaxies. All are designed for circumnavigation around a nucleus. These visceral concentric journeys are inevitable. The psyche is no exception. Man has found religion in a manifestation of the same phenomena. The voyage of life is accompanied by an internal existential reasoning -a venture to find a nucleus to orbit around. By osmosis we bind ourselves to a greater whole to find meaning and abandon the burden that is “the human condition”. This is a great undertaking. It is difficult to think of the three cities of Makkah, Madinah, and Jerusalemwithout a sense of that journey. They are a beacon for our need for pilgrimage. In our journey, we spiral away from the womb, without ever fully breaking away from it; hence we gravitate around as if tethered to an invisible umbilical cord. The ritual of pilgrimage is evidence that we are fated to orbit and never completely break free from our point of genesis and that the journey within is forever entwined with the journey without. The work presented here is but an attempt at representing the “living” collective “organism”, which is at all times vulnerable to mutation into an unknown product, like all living things, in gestation.
Education
: 1996 BA in Sociology/Anthropology, American University of Beirut. : • 1998 “Salon De L’Automne” Musee Sursock Beirut. • 2002 “Of Escape and Bieng” *Galleie Epreuve D’Artiste Beirut. • Solo Exhibitions. • 2002 “Les Artistes S’Amusent” Gallerie Eprevue D’Artiste Beirut (Mixed media on custom made wood boxes). • 2003 “Floating Stools” Nada Debs 100% DesignLondon (Mixed media on canvas clad stools). • 2004 “Les Artistes S’Amusent”Gallerie Epreuve D’Artiste Beirut (mixed media on custom made wooden boxes). • 2004 Jewelry Collection for Maison Rabih Kayrouz Beirut. • 2004 “Nocturnes des Createurs”Musee National Du Liban Beirut (limited edition of metal amulet with leather satchel commissioned by the museum). • 2004 “Resistance” Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne (sling shot leather and tire-rubber belt) • 2005 “Do It”Espace SD Beirut (sling shot leather and tire-rubber belt). • Architectural Installation in collaboration with architect Raed Abillama Beirut. • Textile Experimentation in fashion items in collaboration with Milia Maroun Istanbul. • Installation “sculpture & dresses” in collaboration with Maison Rabih Kayrouz Bahrain-Paris. • Explorations in Ceramics and Forms, Beirut. • The Ultimate Journey”Exhibition in Jeddah.
Artistic Activites
Current Projects:
42
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online