Paris' galerie frank elbaz displaying artist Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili & Rooms Studio creatives
Tweet 
Share
Visual works by three Georgian women artists come together in a display described as "meditative" and offering interrelated images reflecting the chaotic nature of a city they come from, in a galerie frank elbaz exhibition in Paris.
The venue has lent its space to artists Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia, the latter representing Rooms Studio, to display a number of their works - visual and tactile - in the display entitled The Wet Material.
In the exposition, which opened in the French capital's gallery on Saturday, the featured works include Alexi-Meskhishvili's Georgian Ornament - photographs of plastic bags sold by souvenir stores in Tbilisi and bearing ornaments reflecting traditional Georgian motifs.
Effectively stripped of their essence through the commercialisation, the details are seen in the photographs via analog films as well as "camera-free", as described by art critic Elene Abashidze, who describes how the negatives expose "the translucent bags on the film emulsion with finger lights, thus capturing the gesture of her hand, and the act of recording itself."
Other highlighted works, coming from the Rooms Studio creatives, continue a street series from the studio, with furniture and references to their place in Tbilisi urban fabric.
These incidental objects, assembled out of pure necessity with materials accessible on the spot define the focal observation point of Rooms Studio. Honesty and authenticity of these objects are inseparable elements of Tbilisi
- Elene Abashidze
Salvaged materials like wood and aluminium, discovered at popular Tbilisi spots for open-air antique sale stalls and flea markets, work to blur the distinction between "pre-designed and spontaneous", the description also reads.
Ties between the works displayed in the gallery are particularly on display in some instances, Abashidze has noted in her summary for The Wet Material, with the collaborative In the Ether, the principal element of the overall exhibition.
It brings together "a light, the form of which recalls a frequent blue rose motif from Alexi-Meskhishvili´s photographs and glass and metal work of Rooms Studio’s molding and sculpting practice," the art critic points out, with references to Soviet-era postcards.
The joint display will be on show at galerie frank elbaz through March 19, with the venue open for viewing between 6-9pm local time.