Born in Morocco, Rim Slaoui (aka HACEL) is a multidisciplinary artist who loves experimenting with different techniques to illustrate — in the words of Mark Rothko — "basic human emotions".
She obtained her B.F.A. at the University of Ottawa (Canada), where she specialized in Painting / Drawing.
Before she was a visual artist, she wrote — and has done so for as long as she can remember. She sees text-based art as a natural process in her effort to recode the world into her own language & understand it better.
Her art practice —mainly painting/drawing and photography— seeks to abstract reality and reduce captured moments to a liminal space for the psyche.
Her photographs alternate between colourful, abstracted close-ups of urban elements, and deserted semi-urban spaces that owe their eerie character to nature's fluctuating moods... and maybe a light leak in the camera. They are an ode to the solitary mind's obsessive internal monologues, at once quiet and dynamic.
By combining mediums, she multiplies the threads of narration, gives the storytelling an acoustic rhythm, and reinforces the stimulation of senses.
As she explores different approaches to mixed media art, she isn't afraid to let her creative process show through in the final product.
She currently resides in Toronto, Canada.