Nashashibi has worked in various media including film and photographic installations as well as painting. In her work, daily life intersects with fantasy and the mythological and often exposes the tension between public and private spaces. Like her films, her paintings encompass both impressions and more figurative depictions creating collages of everyday life.
Beginning in 2014, her painting started to engage with place through organic forms rendered in vivid colours. South of France continues in this style yet, incorporates the everyday through the nylon tights draped over the canvas. The tights hang between oval forms suggesting a liminality between the mundane and the idyllic. The landscape refers to the light, colours and atmosphere of the South of France, a place the artist links with Matisse, Bonnard and Monet. Nashashibi describes the title as being an ‘offhand and vague reference’ as it is a subjective take rather than a direct reference.
The leaves Nashashibi depicts are pink and purple like the colour of fruits or flowers rendering an uncanny space referring to the imperfect nature of memory. The mass-produced nylons hang over the scene representing legs in the sun. The nylons mimic a figure rather than create a figurative depiction, producing a closeness to the feeling of a body and the notion of retreat, paradise and painting.
Southampton City Gallery holds an impressive collection of work, particularly 20th Century Contemporary painting. In particular, the post-impressionist holdings compliment Rosalind Nashashibi’s contemporary take on the subject matter of French Post-Impressionist painting. Her work contributes to the strength of the collection and will highlight the remarkable expansion of the collection over the last 80 years.
