“Timeshells” are time-based compositions of static objects in a limited space, upon which repetitious events are projected. Shining a virtual moving light across these static objects creates choreographed shadows, conveying the sense of a day passing within a span of minutes. The objects become ‘time-lapsed’ and as a result, allthough they are static, they seem to live. Framed on their canvases they are shells that capture time.

Timeshells trailer for the exhibition in le Musée des Beaux Arts Joseph Dechelette, Roanne, France 2020

Shadows and lights move independent of the physical reality. The shadows are not caused by the sun or a lamp, but by an animated light source in the computer. This adds a “reality” that does not align with what you look at; you see the result of moving light sources, but the light sources don’t exist, causing an alienating and hypnotic effect. It confuses the brain.

Pharmacity, filmed at Musée des Beaux Arts Joseph Dechelette, Roanne, France 2020

The manipulation of light and shadow and the undeniable urge to organize things in a geometrical way - even in chaos - defines most of Lokman’s works. Time-manipulated shadows that expand and contract evoke a feeling of time elapsing, sometimes obviously, sometimes more subtly. This notion of the mutability of time is a common factor in Timeshells.

Image

The Match, installation from Timeshells

“Creating Timeshells was initially an intuitive process. I can often only indicate in retrospect why I made something. I don’t have the urgency in advance to educate, reform or warn society. I can’t deny however that there is an engagement in most works".
Image

Hello Welcome, installation from Timeshells

"In some cases this is obvious, like in Hello Welcome, based on the endless stream of SPAM and the screaming presence of flat materialism on the internet".
Image

Hello Welcome, installation from Timeshells

Image

Composition in Blue & Yellow, installation from Timeshells

"Or in Strike, a work from 2016, based on the increasing sense of threat and individualism in society, partly as a result of the assaults in France and beyond. When a negative, threatening message is wrapped in aesthetics and beauty, the message itself gets stronger by the absurdity of the contrast.

Image

Beauty can only exist by the presence of ugliness. Composition in Blue and Yellow is a good example of this. The vulgarity of the combination of noses and urinals becomes an aesthetic reality when combined with a choreography of lights.”