THE HAGUE.- This spring, KM21 presents the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Mohammed Sami (1984, Iraq). In his monumental, enigmatic and evocative paintings, Sami explores how unreliable and vulnerable memory can be. In KM21, Sami is showing a selection of works that have not been displayed before, including the new work Fire Exit.
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Where is the emergency exit? A dark cloud drifts over strips of fluorescent lights. In the far distance a green sign emerges in the darkness. Or are we looking at a motorway, or even an aerial bombing? Mohammed Sami’s work is never clear-cut. And that is equally true of his monumental painting Fire Exit. Sometimes the ambiguity is in the composition, which is slightly off, an object that seems out of place or shadows that might possibly reveal something. Although he never paints figures, Sami succeeds in making the human presence tangible. A presence that gets under your skin. We feel the uncanny in Sami’s interiors, haunted landscapes and emotionally loaded everyday objects.
Spaces for remembering
Sami grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, and lived in Sweden before settling in London. Personal experiences and memories are the breeding ground for his work, in which landscapes and conflicts are important themes. But as he himself says: ‘In painting I’m more interested in the sound of the bullet than the bullet itself.’ Sami steers clear of narrative imagery, instead creating spaces in which feelings, memories, moments and events come to the surface. Ambiguous images and evocative titles make you keep looking – as if caught in a dream just before waking.
Mohammed Sami (1984, Baghdad, Iraq) lives and works in London. He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, Belfast School of Art and Goldsmiths College in London. His work has recently been shown at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate Britain, Camden Art Centre and the Hayward Gallery in London. His works are in the collection of, among others, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Moderna Museet in Stockholm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York and Tate in London.
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