Mahmood Kaiss: Arabesque #3

The arabesque—an ornamentation style stunningly intertwining vegetal or geometric designs—is at the center of Mahmood Kaiss' current installation, which retains some traditional arabesque characteristics, while making far-reaching modifications in others. Using transformation, abstraction and hybridization, Kaiss examines the severing of form from its familiar image and its translocation into a different stylistic, material, spatial and theoretical world and deals with questions of Islamic vs. western culture, identification, belonging and detachment.