Ephemeral. A momentary meeting of colour-spectrum bleed. Fluidity of form. Trickling tenderly. The suspended timelessness of abstraction. Fatima Tayob Moosa explores the intersection of analysis and unhindered expression. Throughout her life, Fatima has always been lured by the paint and brush. However, she initially in her career she studied design. In 2015 she decided to pursue fine arts more formally and began studying at the University of Hertfordshire for her MAFA.
Her latest exhibition, Encounters, combines three different bodies of work. Through her practice she locates herself within the context of her environment, cultural background and also explores aspects of science – approaching the cell as her subject. “I wanted to look at the deeper aspects of it, the cells in our bodies which I believe hold emotions and memory.” Fatima explores how our biological make-up contains the code to who we are as people. Science and art are often perceived as disparate disciplines. However, she locates the intersection between them.
Fatima’s process-centric work navigates aspects of the physical and metaphysical world – and what that means to us as human beings. Fatima is also interested in the complex dynamic between humans and our environments – the way we affect and experience our surroundings as well as how they in turn mold us.
There are traces of her design-background peppered throughout her work – especially in her collage pieces. She describes the process as a “balance between mind and heart”. The images appear almost sculptural – as representations of objects are layered and counterbalanced between forms and structure. Her paintings on the other hand, appear to be far more organic. “It’s quite a spiritual process for me”. Fatima notes that the process is a space for her to connect with herself, the earth, the environment and a sense of higher being. “When I sit down to make a painting, I have to complete it”. Painting seems to provide a transcendental space of catharsis.
“I use a lot of water in my paintings, I love the fluidity of it. The element of water talks to me in a different way, I feel very connected to it.” Fatima also explores elements of chance through her work – by allowing the paint to move and the colours to blend freely. The colour palette in her work relates to building a personal visual language, ‘the colours have also come to mean something to me, as I paint they sort of personify themselves.” Her work as an artist is in many ways an expression of her lived experience, cultural background, environment and biology. “As we go through life we seem to pick up little pieces of our past, whether it’s bringing it back to resolve something or not”.
