The Drawers - Khaled Mansur

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(ab strak' tid)

Using new media, Khaled Mansur brings a literal three dimensionality into his work. Using slickness to erase the trace of his hand, he overrides the expressive potential with his perfect technical acumen. The object gains the upper hand rather than the maker - perhaps the ultimate aim of creativity - and the result is something more absolute than the originator. The basis for minimalism was the paring back of complexity to a purist point, unencumbered by human fallibility. The works of Donald Judd or Ellsworth Kelly are examples where the process is so mechanical that they appear manufactured rather than made. In Mansur's work, the fabrication is so smart that it leaves no room for evidence of human mistakes. This science fictive precision supports the aerodynamic lines. The lighting in Tomorrow Contained  comes from the inside of the piece yet there is no sign of a power source. It appears to generate its own illumination, a futuristic concept, but it is actually beaming from the 'mother source'  ambient light, just as earth is lit by the sun or moon.

Mansur's colour schemes vacillate between industrial, corporate and the disco space where the sheerness of plexi-glass is background for chi-chi. Along with the Bauhaus, modernity and the sleek perfection of automobiles, Mansur is in stride with the times and with an unflinching determination to perfect his aesthetic through new media, he is the purist within (ab-strak-tid).

Above: Tomorrow Contained - 2009, acrylic construction, 12x36x3 inches

 

Whose Country - 2008, acrylic construction, 30x50x4 inches