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Ibrahim Said (Egyptian, b. 1976)
Reflection, 2021
White Earthenware
28 3/4" x 10" x 8 1/2" (73 x 25 x 22 cm)
(ISa.22739)
Ibrahim Said's "Reflection" (2021) has been acquired by the The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
"Reflection" expands on the design principles and ceramic art histories evident in Said's "Floating Vase" works. In “Reflection,” Said's distinctive combination of hand-carved ornamentation and gravity-defying form is doubled in a vase that appears to levitate above another its own image.
The pair is connected by pillars that emerge from the bodies and spouts of each vessel, pierced with decorative carvings inspired by jug filters characteristic of ceramics from Egypt's Fatimid Dynastic era (circa 900 CE). This feature would originally have only been visible to an individual drinking from such a vessel, and, in his work, Said turns it outward for viewers to see. In these carvings, Said incorporates the complex geometric patterns derived from Islamic art and architecture, which draw on their own long and overlapping history of ornamentation.
The forms of the vessels themselves reference ceramics from ancient Egypt’s Naqada Period (circa 4000 – 3000 BCE), especially in the fine, burnished black glazes that covers their outsides. Said synthesizes these diverse cultural influences into a distinctly contemporary body of work, and anchors his practice in historical threads that originate millennia apart.
"Reflection" was previously exhibited in Said's debut exhibition with Yossi Milo, From Thebes to Cairo. To learn more about the exhibition, click here.
The pair is connected by pillars that emerge from the bodies and spouts of each vessel, pierced with decorative carvings inspired by jug filters characteristic of ceramics from Egypt's Fatimid Dynastic era (circa 900 CE). This feature would originally have only been visible to an individual drinking from such a vessel, and, in his work, Said turns it outward for viewers to see. In these carvings, Said incorporates the complex geometric patterns derived from Islamic art and architecture, which draw on their own long and overlapping history of ornamentation.
The forms of the vessels themselves reference ceramics from ancient Egypt’s Naqada Period (circa 4000 – 3000 BCE), especially in the fine, burnished black glazes that covers their outsides. Said synthesizes these diverse cultural influences into a distinctly contemporary body of work, and anchors his practice in historical threads that originate millennia apart.
"Reflection" was previously exhibited in Said's debut exhibition with Yossi Milo, From Thebes to Cairo. To learn more about the exhibition, click here.
January 24, 2025
