Jahongir Bobokulov

Aura, 2025

Exploring the living, shifting conditions of the Aral, Aura generates the heat necessary for and created by all metabolic processes.

At the centre of the composition appears a source of light that seems to vibrate with energy. Using a custom technique of airbrush painting onto polyurethane foam, Bobokulov allows paint to be absorbed, to spread, to run over the materials porous, airy structure. Viewed closely, the depths of the foam reveal an intricate texture, like light over cratered landscapes or distant constellations. Bobokulov's practice is meticulous and spiritual.

Capturing light in its myriad, elusive states, he considers how we experience and relate to the scale of the world, where the unfathomable distance of the sun can be so intimately felt as scorched earth under our feet. His introspective process is reflected in the work's atmospheric stillness - one that absorbs the gaze and, according to the artist, "lets us travel through the molecular dimension".