Mandy El-Sayegh

Mandy El-Sayegh, White Grounds. Installation view: Bétonsalon – Centre d’art et de recherche, Paris, France, 2019 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Bétonsalon – Centre d’art et de recherche. Photo: Aurélien Mole

Mandy El-Sayegh, Bloom, 2020 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin. Photo: Jack Hems

Latex plays a large part in Mandy El-Sayegh’s work. She uses it as a skin to bind, protect and encase paintings, works on paper and installations, and as a solid material for sculptures, such as uneven floor tiles on which people stand unsteadily to view her work. A familiar product from her Malaysian birthplace, latex holds El-Sayegh’s collaged fragments together in a coagulated form. Plundering her personal archive of ephemera and hoarded scraps, she layers newspapers, maps, drawings, sweet wrappers, photographs and Arabic and Chinese calligraphy. Grids also recur throughout her work: in the tiles; steel box-like vitrines that are used as an organisational device; and in newspaper sheets used to paper the floor and wall.

Mandy‌ ‌El-Sayegh‌ ‌(born‌ ‌1985,‌ ‌Selangor,‌ ‌Malaysia)‌ ‌lives‌ ‌and‌ ‌works‌ ‌in‌ ‌London.‌ El-Sayegh‌ ‌studied‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌University‌ ‌of‌ ‌Westminster‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌Royal‌ ‌College‌ ‌of‌ ‌Art, both London.‌ ‌

Mandy El-Sayegh, Bloom, 2020 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Paris, Salzburg. Photo: Jack Hems

I’m interested in the accumulation of meaning through a layering system … I include fragments of conversations, headlines, materials; it can be really nonsensical stuff, but it becomes loaded when you put it on other material.

– Mandy El-Sayegh

Mandy El-Sayegh, White Grounds. Installation detail: Bétonsalon - Centre d'art et de recherche, Paris, France 2019 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Bétonsalon - Centre d'art et de recherche. Photo: Aurélien Mole