Nasser Azam - Art Below

Art Below

In April 2011, Azam with Art Below carried out a dual public art display in the Tokyo Metro and London Underground commuters saw a scene of Antarctica and one artist - a dot in the huge icy canvas. In July 2008 Azam completed two triptychs in zero gravity, done as a homage to the artist Francis Bacon. In February 2010, accompanied by a camera crew, Azam to draw inspiration from the frozen tundra of Antarctica where he endured extreme weather conditions to produce a series of large abstract oil paintings. For 2 weeks, Azam's work was on the billboard space of 2 platforms 6000 miles apart in Tokyo's Shibuya station and London's Liverpool Street Station with images of his Antarctica series. Azam commented "I wanted to expose the desolate, silent, spacious and empty environment of the South Pole in probably the most crowded, hectic, busy and noisy space in the world" Accompanying the poster display on the Liverpool Street station platform, Art Below took over a 3 meter wide digital projection screen, piloting an international video link enabling London's travellers to view the Tokyo platform - the poster display and all the public activity going on around it. Playing on the same video loop was a 2 minute film made in collaboration with Bafta nominated British Film Director Ed Blum. Here we see Nasser Azam creating canvasses at temperatures of minus 40 degrees and buffeted by gales, he paints in different settings: on glaciers, by frozen lakes, in ice caves. Nasser says "I am confronted by a magnitude of blinding light, by wind and intense cold." Some of his canvases where lost in an Antarctic gale. But most are here for us to see. Such ordeals need preparation. Azam prepared for this venture in the huge freezer of Billingsgate Butchers Market, devising brushes that would work in such temperatures, and acrylic paint that did not clog. Art Below made the policy decision to persist with this display in Tokyo despite Tsunami, Earthquake and Nuclear fallout. Ben Moore said 'We did this in the sure conviction that Tokyo's commuters will appreciate such a diversion from their adversities. Now is not the time to withdraw our custom.' This was the third exhibition they have staged in the Tokyo metro.