Bronzes Explore Wartime Memories

×

Expand

Marie Khouri, “Sphere,” 2017

bronze, 20” x 20” x 19"

Marie Khouri’s exhibition, Bronze, explores her experiences growing up in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. On view at Vancouver’s Equinox Gallery until Feb. 22, the show juxtaposes spheres in various states of disintegration with her signature curvilinear abstract forms, telling a story of regeneration and rebirth.

×

1 of 2

Expand

Marie Khouri, “Sphere (II),” 2017

bronze, 6” x 6” x 6”

×

2 of 2

Expand

Marie Khouri, “Vessel (I),” 2017

bronze, 28” x 28” x 16”

Prev

Next

Khouri’s Vessel and Sphere series encompass notions of loss and destruction through the act of making. She uses a lost-wax casting process, sculpting wax models and rupturing them with a torch, thus using an act of destruction to create. The hollowed vessels evoke the shattered buildings of Beirut, which Khouri left as a teenager after war broke out in the 1970s. Her beautiful objects, unable to become whole, are laden with a sense of melancholy.

Standing in opposition to these pieces are three abstract sculptures. Polished to a mirror finish, they gleam under the gallery lights. At first glance, Abstract 1, Abstract 2 and Toi et Moi, all from 2017, seem like outliers compared to the delicate tactility of her Vessel and Sphere series. However, a distinct thread weaves these bodies of work together. In manipulating bronze, Khouri is grappling and coming to terms with personal loss. These works are not simply examinations of bronze as a medium, but representations of the cycle of decay and growth.

×

1 of 2

Expand

Marie Khouri, “Toi et Moi,” 2017

bronze, 16” x 9” x 8"

×

2 of 2

Expand

Marie Khouri, “Abstract 2,” 2017

bronze with mirror finish,15” x 14” x 10”

Prev

Next

It’s in this way that sculpture becomes a language, one in which Khouri is fluent. These works stand as memorials, or relics of her past, akin to the ruined shell of the Holiday Inn that stands across the road from her childhood home. The hotel, at the centre of a months-long conflict known as the Battle of the Hotels, is both a reminder of war and a symbol of resilience in a newly modernized city centre.

Even through the narrative that binds Khouri’s work, it’s hard to forget the beauty of these objects. They are at once delicate and strong, incomplete and whole. Accessible through form, they also confront viewers by embodying darker themes of loss and grief. Bronze is a tale told through its medium, a record not just of Khouri’s artistic practice, but also her personal journey. ■