Nabilah Nordin is a Singaporean/Australian sculptor. Interested in material invention, her installations embrace wonky craftwork, playfully celebrating the visceral and anthropomorphic qualities of materials in concert with community engaged performative practices. Nordin completed a Master of Contemporary Art at VCA in 2015, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University in 2013.
Cycles of construction and destruction characterise her studio process. Nordin ‘unlearns’ correct methods and techniques to maintain a state of conscious naïveté. She amplifies sculptural scraps and off-cuts, transforming them into parodies of monumental artefacts. They speak of unbridled ambition and impossible physical challenges. Her ever-expanding sculptural vocabulary strives for the slimy, slopping, seeping, slippery seduction of sensuous surfaces. Nordin’s studio process draws on ‘domestic’ activities such as cooking, DIY construction, makeshift architecture or interior decoration, to conjure absurd monuments and amorphous environments.
Nordin has had multiple solo exhibitions including Birdbrush and Other Essentials, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2021 and An Obstacle in Every Direction, Singapore Biennale, Singapore, 2019. Group shows include A thousand different angles, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, in 2022 and SIMMER, MAMA, Murray Art Museum Albury in 2021. Nordin’s work has just been shown at Art Cologne with Neon Parc and will also be featured in the upcoming Melbourne Now and The National 4 : Australian Art Now at the AGNSW.
Nabilah Nordin + Neon Parc + Jasmine Brooks