Fann À Porter is delighted to present Reflections, a solo exhibition by Syrian artist, Besher Koushaji. The exhibition will feature 11 artworks where each canvas welcomes the viewer to join Besher in his fresh and modern technique of layers and patterns that reflect the complexity that distances the artist from his memories of a home he once knew but no longer exists and becomes vague and distorted as the years pass.
Koushaji's artistic journey began in depicting buildings, familiar houses, and streets in his artworks. However, after moving away from his home country of Syria in 2012, the subject of his work evolved. His explorations shifterd to embody the reflections of his memories and reality of homes, figures and faces in his life.
Many of the buildings he once depicted are now destroyed, so he began building an archive of images from his memories, which then appear as ambiguous and unsettling in his artworks. People appear as silhouettes of faces and bodies, broken into abstract, colours and shapes, reminiscent of something seen through refracting lenses. These distortions are furthered by the technique employed: complex patterns that refract the figures including calligraphy, the silhouettes of buildings and places, shadows of somewhere else. The artworks also bring to light the current realities of his home country Syria.
Commenting about his work, “Since I left my homeland I have been trying hard to rebuild the beautiful image of my country which I miss very much. My home, my friends and my memories are all there. These beautiful memories now have become mixed up with the presence of today, to produce rather confused and chipped images of reality which cast their reflections in my work.”