FRIEDMAN BENDA | NAJLA EL ZEIN | FEBRUARY 28 – APRIL 13, 2019
Friedman Benda presents “Transition”, Beirut-based designer Najla El Zein’s first solo exhibition. This marks the debut presentation of three series: Distortion, Fragmented Pillar and Seduction. Organic and gestural, these objects act as varied embodiments of El Zein’s personal journey.
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Alluding to the pregnant form, Distortion illustrates various stages of the body’s transformation. Demonstrated in a series of concrete benches, this body of work explores how this impact is experienced through material and spatial composition. These highly-contoured silhouettes create a surrealist sense of dislocation, while embracing the sense of femininity and sensuality. “Distortion” art piece is a balance of functionality and sculptural shape. This elegant bench constructed of fiber and resin reinforced by concrete. Bold and minimal body of the bench sharply evolves into a gentle form that symbolize the femininity. This unconventional form and bold appearance represents artist’s manifesto about experience, mystery, and surprise.
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“Fragmented Pillar” symbolize the disturbance of one’s foundation. Strong, erect and imposing, the pillar is the mother structure of any given entity. A disruption as such, results in the fragility of the pillar’s fundamental function, characterized by its revealed fragments,” El Zein states. Through a series of interactive sculptures made of plaster and sand, the series explores the physical and emotional disorder through the disturbance of one’s foundation.
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Lastly, Seduction depicts human interaction and connection between figures in varying degrees of proximity. Synthesizing abstraction and representation, these stone-sculpted forms explore a range of states from introversion to desire.
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