Melting a False Monument Study, 2018 is part of an ongoing series which began in Paris in 2012. These works look at the symbolic eagle, which has been overtly associated with freedom, strength and nationhood since the very concept of a nation was conceived. By transforming the two-dimensional logo of the Pan-Arab eagle (the eagle of Saladin used in the passports of Iraqi, Syrian and Egyptian citizens since the Pan-Arab movement of the 1950s) into a three-dimensional form, Athier challenges the materiality of how we perceive an idea and thus how a concept like a hypothetical eagle could be melted. The streaks on the eagle’s surface comically resembles fake veneered wood, while other elements within the composition take on patterns of marble or the tactility of plastics. All elements and all ideas, even ones as grand as a symbolic eagle, are only temporary.

Athier’s work in recent years has been about letting go and allowing space to enter his compositions, which echo and embrace the floating nature of uncertainty of the world around him. Within these paintings, the artist creates meticulously designed three dimensional scenes, constructed almost like a stage designer. The arrangements explore how objects can exist together, disregarding constraints such as gravity and spacial hierarchy. The elements collide, float, move and melt without constraint. Whether in the industrial suburbs of Los Angeles or Paris, where his current studio is, the elements that form his compositions are a direct response to the artefacts which surround him: geometric blocks, veined marble and terrazzo slabs, shards of rubble, squiggles and urgent marks of dirt on floors, foam refuse, plastic toys, curvilinear objects and patterned forms in a milieu he’s partially documented and partially imagined. 

Colour has always been a part of Athier’s practice and in recent years this exploration has begun to move into a meditative process. Ethereal echoes of distant memories and conceptual nostalgia are layered into his work directly though his palette. bleached out and sun drenched pastels which have less potency and vigour than the more recognisable bold palettes of past works produce an internal light within the compositions, allowing the viewer to breathe calmly as they navigate his world.

(Athier, quoted on his website, www.athier.com)