Helsinki

3D Model

Helsinki brings to the fore the figurative elements in Dr Iskandar’s works. The figure emerged in his clay works as a response to the poverty and oppression Dr Iskandar had witnessed when on a scholarship to India in 1966. Such figural representations in clay were later exhibited in 1984 at his first solo exhibition at the Alpha Gallery.

Shortly after, Dr Iskandar stopped creating full figures because of family reservations. He was aware of aniconism – an interpretation of the Koran that prohibits figurative images for idolatry and that discourages figuration representations as a whole. Subsequently, Dr Iskandar would depict ‘extracts’ of the human form – limbs, or suggestions of a torso, face or other body parts.

In Helsinki, a human foot appears in mid-air, stepping on sinuous, tubular forms. Cobalt and barium glazes were used to produce his signature ‘Iskandar blue’. He had named this work after Finland’s capital, in tribute to time spent with a Finnish artist who was noted for sculpting legs.