With Anamorphia, Rita Alaoui continues and transforms the visual language explored in Objets trouvés. Here, the medium shifts: kraft paper lends warmth, ink introduces a more gestural, fluid mark-making, and the forms themselves become less literal, more ethereal. It is as if the tangible residue of the first series has—over time—dissolved into haunting silhouettes, traces of memory hovering between emergence and disappearance.
Against the subdued, earthy tone of kraft, inked lines unfurl with quiet assurance: slender strokes, shifting densities, and rhythmic undulations evoke natural elements—twined roots, seed pods, curled petals—or perhaps the ghostly contours of imagination. The imagery resists singular interpretation, instead inhabiting a threshold between recognition and abstraction, the familiar and the dreamlike.
As in Objets trouvés, the question of scale is central. The drawings can be perceived as fragments glimpsed through a microscope—cells, spores, mineral patterns—or as expansive macrocosmic forms reminiscent of fossils, astral bodies, or landscapes seen from afar. This simultaneous reading of the infinitely small and the immeasurably large destabilizes perception, opening a space of contemplation where boundaries collapse.
Alaoui’s work is grounded in a gentle archaeology or botanica: she collects natural detritus, observes with reverence, and allows form to emerge through meticulous composition. The result is consistently animistic: everyday fragments become imbued with spiritual resonance, testifying to the persistence of life, transformation, and the poetry of matter.
This exquisite works on paper is masterfully created, embodying the intricate finesse and visionary artistry that our gallery proudly showcases.