IN COLOUR 2018

Rashid Al Khalifa made "In Colour" from, well, judging by the looks of it, a whole lot of precisely placed vertical cuboids. The way he works with these colours is really interesting, because although the colours are very vivid, they're applied in such a way that it becomes more about the relationship between the units themselves. There is something about the texture of the aluminum. The way that the light bounces off each individual piece creates a kind of shimmering effect. It feels like the colours are almost vibrating, which is a really smart effect that turns colour into an almost physical thing. I wonder if Al Khalifa was thinking about artists like Josef Albers, who spent a lot of time exploring how colours interact with each other. Except here, it's not just about the colours; it's about how the light plays on the surface of the material, and how that changes our perception. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation, building on what came before, but also pushing things in new and unexpected directions.