STEP INTO THE LIGHT WITH RANA BEGUM / The Arts Society

I spoke with Rana Begum about the influence of her childhood in Bangladesh, how the pandemic led to a new video work and why producing art for the public realm has nothing to do with money.

Rana Begum’s new public sculpture, No.1104 Catching Colour (2022) can be experienced 24-hours a day, come rain or shine. Situated in Botanic Square on London City Island, it’s the latest addition to The Line, a public art walk in East London, Catching Colour not only responds to its close proximity to the River Lea and creates a dialogue with the surrounding apartment blocks, it also transforms and alters depending on changing weather, seasons and most importantly, light.

Born in Sylhet, Bangladesh, Begum moved to the UK when she was eight. ‘I was thinking about creating something that was inspired by my experience as a child growing up in Bangladesh,’ Begum explains about Catching Colour. Her latest public sculpture feels like a natural development from her woven basket installation, No.473 Baskets (2014) first seen during the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh that used locally-sourced baskets. Here, Catching Colour uses another pre-made material, but this time of an industrial nature – a favourite of Begum’s – sheets of galvanised metal mesh. The hard, sharp steel sheets have been transformed into undulating forms that float mid-air above your head recalling traditional Bangladesh fishing nets being strewn into the water, ‘I initially proposed using fishing nets but structurally we had lots of challenges,’ she tells me.

Creating work for the public realm can have many challenges, of which Begum embraces, ‘It’s definitely not the money, that’s something we can rule out.’ There were times she contemplated giving up due to City Island’s exposed location which creates a wind tunnel in Botanic Square, but she persisted, ‘I like those challenges as I feel it really opens up possibilities and pushes the work, the studio and the practice. It pushes the way I have conversations with my team and the way forms come together. It even affects the way we use colour.’

The other advantages of working outside is how the general public get to engage with her work, especially people who might not usually visit art galleries, or encounter art, ‘I love doing public art because you get an audience you wouldn’t normally get. People were intrigued [at City Island] asking “What is it?” and “Why is it here?”. Its really nice to hear their [the residents] thoughts as they’re looking at it daily. How they experience the work, respond to it, noticing the changes, how it shifts.’

Like much of Begum’s work, Catching Colour creates a physical and sensory experience. But probably the most crucial aspect of her latest sculpture is that it was produced during the pandemic so it speaks of and for a period of time non of us were expecting or knew how it would affect us, ‘For me Catching Colour is about the experience we’ve had during Covid, this need to be out in the open space,’ explains Begum as we chat over Zoom. ‘I think it’s only when you are having to stay indoors and you feel like you’re being suffocated that there is an element of wanting to be outdoors and wanting to feel lighter.’ Begum looked to previously inspirational artists while making the work, considering the mental impact a period of confinement might have on us, ‘During the pandemic I was looking at artists, particularly Agnes Martin and why she moved to New Mexico and isolated herself, and how she dealt with isolation. Catching Colour is very much about having that openness, that lightness and being somewhere that is connected to people and just feeling more loose, lighter, not being weighed down and not being enclosed in a space. Catching Colour is about letting go in a way.’

The piece, like much of Begum’s abstract practice, really encompasses multiple levels of meaning and incorporates one key material factor; light, ‘We were craving to be outdoors, to be able to look up at the sky and feel the sun on our skin and see movement. I think Catching Colour has movement. Being in a public space, you’re incredibly lucky as you can have natural light constantly shifting and changing. That was really exciting for me.’

This isn’t Begum’s first foray in site-specific work for the urban sprawl. Previous commissions include designing the facade of Marcol House in London and sculptural reliefs for the Surbiton Health Centre in Kingston-Upon-Thames. In Oxford, at the Westgate centre, No.724 Reflectors accompanies your journey as you ascend or descend the escalators. For the 2021 Folkestone Triennial she revamped a kilometre of beach huts with her distinctively geometric colour design. She even collaborated with fashion designer Roksanda, when she created a ginormous net installation for the catwalk in Westminster’s Foreign + Commonwealth office during London Fashion Week in 2020. 

Although Begum studied Painting at Chelsea School of Art and then Slade School of Art for her BA and MA retrospectively, her practice actually encompasses multiple media, ‘I didn’t want to be pinned down. I wanted to be able to do other things and Painting as a subject allowed me the openess that I needed,’ she tells me from her studio residence in Stoke Newington, recently renovated in 2019 by Spatial Affairs Bureau. ‘I think the boundaries are coming down and I really like that. As artists we shouldn’t feel like we have to work within a certain media or certain size.’

Begum’s practice predominantly incorporates industrial materials such as powder-coated galvanised steel, bike reflectors, bricks, tiles and glass, even metal legs of tables, ‘I’ve always been attracted to industrial, architectural materials,’ she explains. She subverts the former use of a material in unexpected ways so its true self isn’t revealed until you are up very close to the work. Neon drinking straws become geometric forms protruding from a wall or terracotta tiles are elevated through vibrant paint and embedded in the ground creating an unlikely forest floor bed. She pushes the parameters of her materials so they embody more than their functional purpose. ‘There is an aesthetic that is not necessarily considered when a function of the material is in the foreground. I’m drawn to this quite hard edge industrial aesthetic, that’s what I love. The materials have the ability to both become quite ephemeral and light as well as be the opposite of what it originally looked like.’

The vibrancy of the city scape and its architecture are hugely influential on Begum’s practice, ‘You start seeing abstract kind of shapes and forms around you constantly that are either clashing or working in kind of harmony,’ she tells me. So to be exhibiting at the home of Sir John Soane, Britain’s foremost visionary Neoclassical architect couldn’t be more fitting. Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing exemplifies Soane’s skill of using natural light, providing the ideal backdrop for the works in Dappled Light, which are exhibited in the gallery and throughout the house. 

A net installation cascades down through the Georgian stairwell, creating a sinuous marriage of form and light, feeling less of an intervention and more as if it were always intended. In the conservatory, a mini scape of colourful towers made from bicycle reflectors interact wonderfully with Soane’s use of coloured stained-glass. And in the Monk’s Dining Room, Begum has placed her new video work which was created during London’s lockdown. No.1080 Forest (2021), a 37-minute time-lapse video is constructed from photographs the artist took every hour of Abney Park Cemetery, which her studio and home back onto, 

‘When I moved into this building I loved capturing that change of light throughout the day,’ she says. ‘It’s really connected to where I grew up in Bangladesh in the countryside surrounded by lots of trees and vividly green rice fields. I started taking stills, they only represent a moment in the day but I was really enjoying seeing the depth that the cemetery had with the change of light and how you experience light as a whole. I am constantly looking for this kind of calmness. ’

The effect of varying light conditions, the nuances it gives Begum’s work is in full force at Pitzhanger. From No.1081 Mesh (2021) that hangs boldly in the middle of the gallery under the stained-glass window to No.1082 Folded Grid (2021) that seemingly moves due to coloured spray paint on the irregular Jesmonite ground, light is the imperative component along with colour and form that brings Begum’s work to life. ‘I’ve found one can’t survive without the other,’ she elucidates. ‘Sometimes one is much more prominent than the other. Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, I like how it’s naturally become these three identifiable elements in the work that coexist. I love the way light allows change to happen in the work. The materials are always somehow, either letting light through, or reflecting light. Light really allows me to take a pause and see a connection that you wouldn’t see and that’s always been my fascination, how light can do that to a work and make people take a moment. I’m trying to make it tangible through various materials.’

The cosmic nature of light and the rhythmic features of her work creates a sense of calmness and moments of contemplation amid the chaos of city living. She is undeniably inspired by the minimalists she first encountered at college such as Sol Le Wit but her formative years learning scripture is also imbued in her practice, ‘I grew up reading the Quran and praying five times a day, so this kind of repetition is instilled in me,’ she explains when I ask how crucial geometry is to her work. Whether it’s prints, painting, video or large-scale public sculptures, Begum embraces her heritage and the influence of Islamic art and architecture to consider the limitless scope of art. ‘I really like the way it [geometry] brings in these other the elements, the idea of the infinite. With geometry you can create these ongoing possibilities.’

Rana Begum: Dappled Light is at Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery until 22 September 2022.
No.1104 Catching Colour (2022) is at Botanic Square, London City Island, part of The Line. 
Rana Begum: Reflection on Colour and Form is at Cristea Roberts Gallery until 30 July 2022.

A shorter version of this article first appeared on The Arts Society.

Images: 
1 & 2. Rana Begum. Catching Colour at London City Island. Photo: Angus Mills

3. Rana Begum, No. 1054 Arpeggio, Commissioned for Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021 in partnership with Folkestone _ Hythe District Council. Photo: Thierry Bal

4 & 5. Installation view of Dappled Light. Photo: Andy Stagg