Artists

Mohammed Z. Rahman

Press release

A Flame is a Petal is Mohammed Z. Rahman’s second solo exhibition at Phillida Reid, including new paintings, across scale, and integrated with sculptural installation.

The exhibition is a meditation on the love and community at stake in an early apocalyptic context marked by social polarisation and ecological destruction. Utilising the symbolism and chromatics of fire and flowers, Rahman explores themes of revolutionary love through memories, dreams, objects and tributes to community. The title is inspired by the yogic practice of trataka meditation which involves watching a candle flame to focus the mind, which Rahman interprets as seeing beyond the peril of the moment to what matters; namely togetherness, the dreams of children and the abolition of unjust systems.