From February through March, the Fisch Haus had an artist in residence who recently moved back to North America from Scotland where she received her MLitt in Fine Art Practice from the Glasgow School of Art. She is Sukaina Kubba, an Iraqi-Canadian artist and architect.
I meet bi-weekly with other area artists for coffee, and Sukaina attended several coffee group meetings while she was here. She explained to me that she was creating work using liquid latex and also creating work on plexiglass sheets utilizing digitization, image manipulation, and printing techniques. As she explained this over coffee, she was busy sewing together 2 small sheets of skin-toned latex. My curiosity was piqued, and I received an invitation to a semi-private exhibition at the Fisch Haus to mark the end of Sukaina’s residency there.
The subtle-printed works on clear plexiglass were fascinating and held the slightest earth tones and rich hints of yellow. An image of a bowl had been manipulated into a seemingly drinkable abstract. Her brilliant works rendered with skin-like liquid latex were large sheets hanging from rods. Two, in slightly opaque spring colors of green and pink, allowed enough light through to create playful shadows. Another draped across a table in white with a bold design that reminded me of a delicate rug. And yet another in skin tone, wrapped about a female sculptural form haunts me still. I dislike comparisons, but I couldn’t help but think of the work of Eva Hesse, with a sense of highly sophisticated playfulness.
And last Monday, Sukaina boarded a plane to Canada. Moving on to her next adventure and leaving me to wonder at what marvels she’d have presented us had she stayed. I suspect we’ll see her again, but only in magazines.