Rana Begum at Pitzhanger Manor ★★★★★

A colourful mesh installation by Rana Begum hangs in the centre of Pitzhanger Gallery, as the sunlight streams through the stained-glass skylights. It’s as visitors have strayed into a magical realm where colourful clouds float inside buildings. This centrepiece of her solo exhibition contains mesh structures inside one another of different colours giving them an almost illusory feel. They convey such lightness that there’s the sense that even if they weren’t attached to the ceiling they would float of their own accord.


These themes of light, weight and colour are present in the works across the show. Next to the ‘colourful clouds’ is an array of lamp bases sticking out of the wall but without their bulbs and shades, they look alien in their light lacking and gravity-defying arrangement.






While across from them crumpled sheets of paper are recreated in jesmonite so they are solid but appear as if they would crumble to the touch. It’s this play on materials with light and colour that repeats throughout the show in her varied works whether it be mirrored triangles subtly grading in colour or a large collection of bike reflectors re-purposed for a wall-based sculpture.


The work continues in the manor house where neon threads weave across and up the Georgian stairwell and reflective coloured towers interact with the light in the conservatory, and outside where planes of coloured glass create coloured shadows out on the grass.


John Soane, the architect who designed Pitzhanger Manor, placed a huge importance on how light interacts with and filters through the building, and in Rana Begum’s art the architecture has found the perfect contemporary companion.


Rana Begum: Dappled Light at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery. 25 March - 11 September.