Nabilah Nordin





SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024Primary Matter
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles

2023The Australian Embassy
Washington DC, United States

2023The National 4: Australian Art Now
Art Gallery of New South Wales

2022Prop Shop
Neon Parc, Melbourne

2021Birdbrush and Other Essentials
Heide MOMA, Melbourne

2021Please Do Not Eat the Sculptures
Missing Persons, Melbourne

2020Covergirl Adhesives
COMA Gallery, Sydney

2019An Obstacle in Every Direction
Singapore Biennale, Singapore


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024Undo the Day
National Art School, Sydney

2023Keith Sonnier: Live in Your Head
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles

2023Fantastic Forms
Bundanon Art Museum, Bundanon

2023So Red It Looks Black
COMA Gallery, Sydney

2022Parade for the Moon
RISING, Melbourne

2021Connecting the World through Sculpture
MUMA Monash, Melbourne









Prop Shop
Neon Parc, Melbourne







(1) Beezhorn, 2022, foam, wax based modelling clay, adhesives, clay, plaster, papier mâché, 157.5 x 28 x 81 cm

(2) Fortune Nights, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, foam, powdered pigments, glass ball, spray paint,42 x 37.5 x 14 cm


(3) The Builder's Hunt, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, mouldable plastic, spray paint, acrylic lacquer, 53 x 25 x 34 cm


(4) The Athlete Wins Again, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, spray paint, gloss varnish, 72.5 x 21 x 27 cm


(5) Venom, 2022, wood, glass, epoxy modelling compound, mouldable plastic, rubber, spray paint, acrylic lacquer, 53 x 43 x 22 cm


(6) Closing Ceremony, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, acrylic lacquer, acrylic paint, spray paint, foam, clay, plaster, papier mâché, gloss varnish, 89 x 54 x 41 cm

(7) Spider Mistress and her Eggs, 2022, wood, foam, mouldable plastic, epoxy modelling compound, acrylic lacquer, wax seal spider stamp, 71 x 26 x 24 cm

(8) Glut Cherry, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, mouldable plastic, polyurethane pigments, clay, plaster, papier mâché, acrylic paint, 54 x 49 x 26 cm


(9) Treasuredome, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, powdered pigments, pyrite, spray paint, necklace, beads, 63 x 27.5 x 21 cm


(10) Twin Caterers, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, polyurethane pigments, spray paint, acrylic paint, 53 x 43 x 22 cm


(11) Academy, 2022, Welded hot rolled steel, MDF, clay, plaster, papier mâché, adhesives, acrylic paint, 154 x 47 x 88 cm

(12) The Elves of Whistletown, 2022, wood, foam, epoxy modelling compound, spray paint, acrylic sheeting, foam mannequin heads, castors, 200 x 120 x 26 cm

(13) Bread Prison, 2022, flour, water, salt, wood, epoxy modelling compound, polyurethane pigments, epoxy glass resin, 194 x 82 x 130 cm


(14) Ballroom, 2022, wood, foam, epoxy modelling compound, wire, acrylic lacquer, powdered pigments, 201 x 74 x 72 cm


(15) The Tie and the Undercoat, 2022, wood, mouldable plastic, epoxy modelling compound, spray paint, walking stick, 123 x 45 x 36 cm


(16) Blockhorn, 2022, epoxy modelling compound, foam, spray paint, acrylic paint, 141 x 40 x 41 cm

(18) Horror Show, 2022, wood, timber stain, epoxy modelling compound, spray paint, curly doll's hair, screws, 245.5 x 49 x 26 cm

(17) Fortune Nights, 2022, wood, epoxy modelling compound, foam, powdered pigments, glass, spray paint, Australian walnuts, perspex, cardboard, 152 x 58 x 50 cm

(19) Creamed Angel, 2022, wood, rope, cement, sand, oxides, epoxy resin, spray paint, paper pulp, construction adhesive, polyurethane sealant, 126 x 57 x 49 cm

(20) Molten Slayer, 2022, wood, foam, canvas, epoxy modelling compound, spray paint, 339 x 129 x 96 cm


Exhibition Statement
June 25–July 23 2022

Neon Parc is pleased to present Prop Shop, the first major solo exhibition at Neon Parc by Singaporean-Australian sculptor Nabilah Nordin. 

Nordin’s distinctive practice utilises non-traditional sculptural materials to create beguiling and playful forms, expressing conscious naiveté and unorthodox sensibilities. Her work over the last seven years explores the possibilities of material invention, with installations that embrace the anthropomorphic qualities of sculptural materials, as well as community engaged performative practices. 

She describes her constantly growing sculptural language as striving for the “slimy, slopping, seeping, slippery seduction of sensuous surfaces.” Her animated forms seem to “topple and collapse upon themselves in a nonsensical cacophony of attempts to make sculpture.” Gestural and loose, her works are oozing, dripping and roughly textured, often combined with bold, coloured pigments.

For Prop Shop at Neon Parc Brunswick, Nordin will present her most ambitious solo exhibition to date. With 8 clusters of large-scale sculptures presented on bespoke staging devices, Nordin’s distinctive sculptural vocabulary expands, incorporating new materials and processes to create some of the largest works ever produced.

The exhibition Prop Shop loosely references a film prop department, where various objects are stored and catalogued for future productions. In this exploration of staging and presentation, Nordin brings together gestural hand-made objects with refined and fabricated elements, referencing mobile systems, logistics, ingredients, storage units and inventories.

In one cluster, a ‘plinth’ takes the form of a fabricated airline bar-cart, yet it is entirely transparent, with the interior filled with clumsy gum-balls. In another work, home-cooked, resin-coated breadsticks are stacked to form haphazard scaffolding. Trapped inside this bread-prison is a sleek, geometric sculpture. Beside this is a vertical monolith storage-box: a “vocabulary pantry”, housing sculptural components for other “props”.

In each case, Nordin embraces the spirit of materiality, where sculptures engage in a type of delegated performance: backstage and front-stage merge into an unfamiliar cluster of fragments, associations and narratives.