Raphaé Memon – Minutes in Blue
We are pleased to display three uniquely hand-made pieces by artist and architect Raphaé Memon at Shoreditch Arts Club, the ‘Minutes’ correlating to our cyclical life and our connection to movement, space, and the Earth.
Raphaé Memon is a scenographer and stage designer, trained in architecture and working across opera, dance, theatre, exhibitions, and sculptural installations.
Minutes11, Minutes12 and Minutes14 are all part of Memon’s MINUTES IN BLUE exhibition in 2024 (pictured above), comprising six hand-crafted window installations which explore the concepts of temporality, wonder, light, storytelling, and transformation. Each display case served as a framed theatre stage, the layered formal shapes correlating to our cyclical life and our connection to movement, space, and the earth. The exhibition was as much about the journey of an idea as it is about its realisation and transformation.
Cobalt blue forms a unifying thread throughout the compositions. This powerful colour, with its deep history in art and architecture, resonates on an emotional level, evoking the ethereal beauty of the blue hour – a fleeting period of twilight that lasts only minutes – and echoing the temporal nature of the wonder that is created in our human experience each day.
Drawing inspiration from the nearby whimsical Pied Bull Yard clock and the original timber cuckoo clocks of Germany’s Black Forest, the exhibition also pays homage to the folklore immortalised by the Brothers Grimm. Classic fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and Rapunzel encapsulate moments of discovery in untamed, unfamiliar, and uncharted places; they capture minutes of transformation and magic, much like the fleeting blue hour. Each display case represents a distinct story, inviting viewers to identify their narratives and reflect on their own encounters with these timeless tales.
The clocks are dotted around the club, upon countertops and tables, the bright cobalt blue timepieces quietly ticking away.
