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








Birdbrush and Other Essentials
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne








(1) Dessert, 2021, cornflakes, epoxyglass resin, sand, pigments, coloured gap filler

(2) Nose-based Snail Platter, 2021, metal tray, wooden spoons, play dough, PVA glue and air dried clay

(3) Ostrich Eggs, 2021, polystyrene, epoxy dough, polyurethane pigments


(4) Automobile Brush, 2021, chicken wireman polyurethane foam, feathers, PVA glue, paper pulp, bristles, spray paint, 7 x 50 x 29 cm

(5) Tickler, 2021, chickenwire, epoxy dough, ostrich feathers, spray paint, 9 x 55 x 30 cm

(6) Sniffler, 2021, wood, chicken wire, epoxy resin, plaster bandage, sand, polyurethane pigments, spray paint, epoxy dough, 34 x 60 x 21 cm


(7) Creamed Angel, 2021, wood, rope, cement, sand, oxides, epoxy resin, spray paint, paper pulp, construction adhesive, polyurethane sealant, 63 x 37 x 36 cm


(8) Macaroni Chair, 2021, welded steel, polyurethane foam, chicken wire, epoxy resin, macaroni, acrylic paint, spray paint, epoxy glass resin, epoxy dough, 164 x 52 x 95 cm

(9) Laundry, 2021, stockings, cushion filling, clothes dryer, acrylic paint, spray paint, ostrich feather, 124x98×76cm

(10) Cakequeen123, 2021, wood, foam board, chicken wire, plaster bandage, cement, sand, sealant, acrylic paint, house paint, paper mix, polystyrene, strap, epoxy resin, sand, polyurethane pigments, 217 x 62 x 45 cm

(11) Shoe Polisher, 2021, wood, chicken wire, polyurethane foam, plaster bandage, plaster, epoxy dough, epoxy resin, sand, polyurethane pigments, acrylic paint, 129 x 42 x 20 cm

(12) Pillow Fight, 2021, feathers, PVA glue, acrylic paint, shaving cream, cement, sand, polyurethane foam, 69 x 28 x 26 cm

(13) Petrol Cleaner, 2021, wood, chicken wire, feathers, oil-based modelling clay, monster clay, sand, epoxy resin, polyurethane pigments, 45 x 43 x 15 cm


(14) Clogger, 2021, wood, chicken wire, polyurethane foam, plaster bandage, plaster, coconut fibre, wigs, acrylic paint, PVA glue, house paint, 147 x 69 x 35 cm

(15) Washing Machine, 2021, welded steel, polyurethane foam, chicken wire, epoxy resin, fabrics, spray paint, 157 x 96 x 45 cm


(16) Music Shelf, 2021, wood, chickenwire, polyurethane foam, cement, sand, house paint, epoxy dough, spray paint, 124 x 51 x 35 cm

(17) Birdbrush, 2021, welded steel, chicken wire, plaster bandage, plaster, epoxy dough, broom bristles, spray paint, acrylic paint, 220 x 113 x 49 cm

(18) Couch Cake, 2021, welded steel, chickenwire, polyurethane foam, cushions, plaster, fabric, house paint, mover's dolly, coloured gap filler, 198 x 110 x 105 cm

(19) Drooper 216B, 2021, wood, chickenwire, polyurethane foam, plaster bandage, plaster, epoxy resin, polyurethane pigments, 143 x 54 x 57 cm

Exhibition Statement
October 30–January 30 2022

Nabilah Nordin invites us into her installation Birdbrush and Other Essentials with the same sense of hospitality as she would welcome guests into her home. The objects we encounter as we wander along the pathways formed between piles of scattered rags are as unfamiliar to us as other people’s furniture, yet we accept this, understanding that this terrain has been formed by someone who is not us, someone other. Here we are visitors in another person’s world.

Imagination informs all aspects of Nordin’s practice. Her work reveals her ceaseless desire to invent, and the scenarios and narratives she uses to describe her work are as idiosyncratic as the way she reconfigures the language of formal abstraction. And while we feel an affinity with it, there is always something unexpected. The titular sculpture Birdbrush sits in the middle of the gallery, a sentinel indicating a division in pathways. Loops of fleshy pink create a slender standing form with an elongated ‘neck’ of stiff bristles, topped off by a tiny purple cap, hovering somewhere between a museological model of a long extinct creature and a bottlebrush for a giant.Birdbrush is also a clue to understanding the thinking behind Nordin’s exhibition. 

- Julia Powles, Curator of Birdbrush and Other Essentials