NADA Curated: Reduction to Satire (Reductio ad Satura)

Sahar Khoury’s recent sculptural works based on the concept of the orchard, combine a freewheeling approach to material in the pursuit of a series of naturalistic scenes in which anthropomorphic ceramic trees take the lead amidst papier mache backdrops and spindly steel supports. Each piece carries a distinct sense of pastoral feeling, or the lack thereof. Khoury’s interpretations of the natural world verge on the absurd. With shaggy, loose branches piled onto roughly formed brown trunks, Khoury’s simplistic trees are mostly set off in pairs, one tree balancing another on its crown. This creates a playful sense of personification, with one tree giving another a boost, perhaps a better view.