In his most recent piece of work, Khaled Zaki captures a calm in the movements that is now on display at Tabari Artspace in DIFC.
The renowned Egyptian artist has produced a group of seven white statuary Carrara marble sculptures and one bronze work that embody a serene balance between tranquilly and momentum. He is known for playing a significant role in influencing Modernist sculpture in the Middle East.
The sculptures, titled The Journey, were made over the course of three years. They are smooth and stark white, and they are set on black plinths that rest on black tiles. The horses appear to be standing still and gliding at the same time, as though they are in a continuous motion.
Zaki’s horses, which are sculpted with the lines that have come to represent his aesthetic, go beyond an investigation of shape and motion. They dive into his intense curiosity and continuous investigation of the connection between motion and spiritual experience.
When Zaki was chosen to represent Egypt at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, his nation was also experiencing civil instability as current president Abdel Fattah El Sisi led the military coup that toppled former president Mohamed Morsi amidst widespread protests.
Zaki began to investigate the notion that one needed to engage with the world in a nonviolent manner in order to draw closer to God during this upheaval.
Whether depicting the noble classes or soldiers, a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, a dynamic spirit, or a symbol of myth and spirituality, horses occupy a major place as subject matter in art.
For more than three years, Zaki studied horses in works of art, photographs, movies, and real life to comprehend their shapes and movements.
Each sculpture exhibits both stillness and motion, and when examined from various perspectives, one can observe captured motions in the form.
A dervish figure and a horse are combined in stunning, flawlessly polished features that blend into smooth volumes of white marble. Each sculpture is a fascinating achievement, floating not only in space but also between the representational and the abstract.
