Raqib Shaw is one fascinating artist with a depth of character and expression that is overwhelming, just viewing his studio within an interview on White Cube's website you get a grasp of his intensity. The gallery appears more of a florists or botanists dream swarmed by rainbows of colour that radiate from the varied flower arrangements invading clusters of his working space, fit for a small wedding. His gallery emanates the vivid palette his works portray highlighting the Persian miniature influence and Indian/Kasmir heritage. The many flowers highlight the importance of nature and a connection to it's flora, fauna, behaviour, power and good and bad forces to him and his work. The title to this show, 'Abscence of God' relates personally to his exposure to Muslim, Hindu and Christian doctrines providing him with a multicultural interpretation of 'God' and 'his' representation. Shaw's work pays definite and clear reference to Persian miniatures that began in the 13th Century but peaked in the 15th and 16th Century.For example you can see a clear parallel in the work of Sultan Muhammed, in works such as "Miraj" (Muhammad's ascent), 1539-43 which like Raqib obtains a depth of intricacy that constantly tickles and tintilates the senses while holding gaze through it's depth of discovery or tale. Raqib's depth is constantly penetrable allowing reinterpretation after reinterpretation but provides a fantasising escapism unlike any other works. Raqib's work are by no means miniature, they take that concept and multiply it repeatedly, he has seven paintings on show here the biggest reaching seven metres. Also featured is his first large sculptural installation titled, 'Adam'. On coming to England Shaw became influenced by Hans Holbein the Younger and in the paintings references his 'Dance of Death' a series of wood engravings. Holbeins miniature or book design and other works are of definite influence and a reproduction of some works aids his own. As with many artists there is a clear interest for Shaw in life and death, mother nature, heaven and hell, Bosch's style relates. In 'Abscence of God VII' its shown how in this exhibition Shaw interveaves classical architecture into his fantasyland integrating West and East. What is most interesting about these works however are the narratives they create, mixing fictional grotesque hybrids with the purity of intricate butterflies, portraying himself as a butterfly catcher hybrid with a broken net. Added to the spectacle of the fantasy is his expansion of palette, a bit like an Indian dish filled with depth of flavour and spice his works involve enamel, acryclic and are transported into fiction via the use of glitter and rhinestones. The vivid palette of colours used projects like an indian spice rack, powerful and bold yet fragmented into a world of fantasy via the use of a scroll to manipulate the surface and create many characters within nature's beauty.
His works have so much to them they can tell a hundred stories time and time again, his liking to Rimbaud is very apparent. While his works portray a rainbow of beauty they also take you to a darker side as does Rimbaud:
'For Hurrah! the wind whistles at the skeletons' grand ball!
The black gallows moans like an organ of iron !
The wolves howl back from the violet forests:
And on the horizon the sky is hell-red...'1
While the paintings take a calmer stance in this exhibition his sculpture, 'Adam' creates an uncomforting disturbing very life-like vision, Adam's head is replaced with that of a bald-like bird, a more crow- like one who is being wrestled by a human-sized highly detailed lobster. There is no surrealism to this though, here fantasy is brought alive, almost as if you were reading Lord of the Rings or Terry Pratchett and the characters suddenly appeared, dark fictional hybrids within your reality.
1 Arthur Rimbaud, 'Dance of the Hanged Men', Document from site Arthur Rimbaud, http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Dance.html, 30th May 2009, from site http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/index-en.php
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