Hannah Barton

The images in the press release for Begum's No. 207 promised much. The neon divisions of space and skewed geometry spiked my imagination, and I eagerly anticipated the opening night.

Initiated during her 2009 residency in Beirut, I interpreted No 207 as the outcome of a visual and intellectual distillation. Using choice materials (household straws) to evoke specific sensibilities in the viewer (with what I read as a prescient outcome) Begum's vision manifested itself using an extremely pared down yet effective vocabulary for expression.

She dedicates an entire room at the Delfina to No 207, which immediately and vitally, allows the viewer to become immersed in the work. It also allows the piece a kinetic property by proxy - as the viewer walks uninterrupted between the structures they distort and adapt - perspective changes are of course to be expected, but here the effect is beguiling.

The use of neon is evocative of the city and resultantly notions of architecture become base-notes, as one considers the nature of the new forms and structure created by Begum - delicate, flimsy, and created by will rather than necessity, and with all attributed connotations of such qualities. It is interpretation that is key, as there is no direction here; No 207 requires you to step along a mental precipice- you either allow yourself to tip over and immerse yourself in Begum's attempts, traces and hints, or you step away and see nothing. I chose to take the dive.

Returning to the use of straws as a primary medium - being concious of their throwaway nature lends up-close viewings of No 207 a more challenging and complex dynamic. Angles; distorted and wild, carving up space with an urban cityscape aesthetic reduced to a minimum engages, but the sense of excitement very nearly dissipates when the straws become manifest - but it does not - it matures and develops. So please don't think me too perverse when I say it was actually the perceived failure of No 207 which makes it successful.

For the absurdity of the medium, and the ability to make something quite beautiful out of the banal and carry the weight of Begum's explorations is the success. And the piece is attractive; indeed, there are moments when there is a sense that the composite shapes created are millimeters away from gorgeous, and others when they are evocative of drawings, with glimmers of figuration appearing as apparitions, only to disappear when focused upon.

Through the references to architecture and the use of space and non-space; impossible spaces forced into recognition by the artist, Begum's neon lines and sections demonstrate in a small way the infinite possibilities around us. It is a discursive in the extreme - a framework in more than physical design.