ART-PRESENTATION: Yazid Oulab-Particules

Yazid Oulab, 350 cm length, Exhibition view at FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azure, 2013, © Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFTYazid Oulab was born in Constantine region of Algeria. At the age of 22, he decided to study art and joined the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Algiers and Graduated in 1985. In 1988, he left for Marseille and entered the École supérieure d’art et de design Marseille-Méditerranée. To finance his studies, he worked on construction sites, as a mason. This professional experience has a huge influence his artistic practice.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie LOFT Archive

Yazid Oulab’s solo exhibition “Particules” is on presentation at Galerie LOFT in Paris. The artist uses different modes of artistic expression: drawing, sculpture, video, photography and he is interested in the basic and raw materials and the transformation of them by all possible ways. The arist constructs works influenced by his family and cultural origins and by her professional and personal experiences: objects of everyday life (jars, scales, crates, carpets …), others related to the sacred (sticks of incense, knife of the sacrifice …) or tools used in the trades of the building which it practiced to finance his studies (trowel, pencil of carpenter, scaffoldings …) “My job is my biography, my father is a worker and my mother is an intellectual, I am the result of both. At the base of my work, there is the worker’s tool, then there is reflection, the mind and therefore knowledge”. The use of nails in his works often catches the viewer’s eyes. The nail is fundamental for architecture, also represents the Cosmic Axis, or Axis Mundi, around which the heavens rotate; Pliny the Elder advised hammering three iron nails, not horseshoes, into the threshold’s lintel to protect the home; the nail and the first letter in the Arabic alphabet have a very similar shape. Also “Alif” is the most commonly used letter due to the several sounds it represents and this leads to many different forms and shapes to recognize each sound. Recently, Yazid Oulab has produced a series of abstract drawings created with graphite attached to a drill. The result is a myriad of points that elevate as whirlwinds, a swarm, reminding him of racing electrons and thus the origin of matter.

Info: Galerie LOFT, 3 bis & 4 rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Duration 11/10-10/11/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:30, Sat 10:30-13:00 & 14:00-18:30, www.galerieloft.com

Yazid Oulab, L’ esclave mourant de Michel-Agne, Graphite stamped with drill on canvas, 220,5 x 151 cm,© Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFT
Yazid Oulab, L’ esclave mourant de Michel-Agne, Graphite stamped with drill on canvas, 220,5 x 151 cm, © Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFT

 

 

Yazid Oulab Monolithe, 2012, Polished Stainless, brushed stainless on edge, 205,5 x 80 x 50 cm, Signed and numbered, Edition of 8, © Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFT
Yazid Oulab Monolithe, 2012, Polished stainless, brushed stainless on edge, 205,5 x 80 x 50 cm, Signed and numbered, Edition of 8, © Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFT

 

 

Yazid Oulab, Noyau cosmique, 2013, graphite stamped with drill on paper, 220,5 x 151 cm, © Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFT
Yazid Oulab, Noyau cosmique, 2013, Graphite stamped with drill on paper, 220,5 x 151 cm, © Yazid Oulab, Courtesy the artist and Galerie LOFT