Caspian, 2014
From Pattern series
Stainless steel, lighting
Site specific installation
2014 Here Today, group exhibition project, Old Sorting Office, London, UK (November 25 – December 17)
With Pattern Series: Caspian, Aida Mahmudova creates a memento of a feature of her hometown of Baku that has undergone radical change: the Caspian Sea. Beset by ecological problems – including the critical endangerment of Beluga sturgeon, pollution, variable water levels, the endangerment of the Caspian Sea, and the threat of desiccation – the artist recreates the Caspian Sea through pattern, as filtered through memory. She realises her highly personal and evocative vision via a discarded metal window grate from an old building that once faced the water, and light projections that cast the shadows of its latticework onto the ceiling, evoking the sea’s waves.
The work Pattern series: Caspian was included in a group show Here… Today, curated by ArtWise curators that took place at the Old Sorting Office, London, UK, 2014. Unique and important art exhibition celebrated the 50th Anniversary of The IUCN Red List of Threatened and Endangered Species. The exhibition included specially commissioned interactive installations and artist’s rooms, and featured the works of world-famous artists including George Condo, Tracey Emin, Andy Warhol, Gavin Turk, Peter Blake, United Visual Artists, Douglas Gordon, Stephanie Quayle, Gordon Cheung, Oswaldo Macia, Julian Opie, Mariko Mori, Carsten Höller, Diana Thater and more.
(From Here Today exhibition catalogue, London, 2014))