VERTEBRAL ARCH: Reema Saeed Abu Hassan’s idea of Vertebral Arch. Photos by Jayan Orma
These artists have captured the moments that the world might have overlooked during the stroll towards more mundane advancements, writes Umer Nangiana
They must be seen — these ideas, executed in a fascinating realm, concern humans and their lives directly. Expressed in different forms, the observations on life from these emerging artists go as deep as to touch upon the most excruciating experience of humans getting blurred in the face of rapid material development.
These artists have captured the moments that the world might have overlooked during the stroll towards more mundane advancements. Their artwork is a reminder about what may have been left or what may be missing in people’s present day life.
Katara Art Centre (KAC) with its Community Supported Art (CSA) exhibition has brought to fore 20 artworks from both emerging and established artists for people in Doha to see. It has enough substance for people to have a look back and critically appreciate the past while taking a quick look into the future at the same time.
This community of artists has stories to tell and ideas to share.
“I wanted to be more abstract and not original like, Oh! this is my stress. I wanted to be more readable for the audience, for, they see what I see (when I was doing it),” Emelina Soares, a young artist, told Community about her piece of photography that captures time lapse depicting mental stress.
“All these pictures of myself performing I overlay them because in a way that kind of talks about time, it is momentary, but then, it is a feeling that I went through,” she said.
It was a performance piece that she did inside her photography studio.
“I wrapped myself with fabric for a self-portrait and had a friend take the photograph for me. Then, I overlay them in multiple positions. Technically, it was not too complicated because I had many variations of it,” Soares added.
The piece shows four images of a human figure wrapped in a fabric going through different phases of a moment. The images have been masterfully gelled into each other to create an illusionary movement.
Technically, Soares used photoshop. She changed the intensity of each layer that can be seen but is invisible at the same time. “When I was performing I stayed at one position but I still moved around. So it was not hard to frame it because it happened in one situation. The background remained same throughout,” the undergraduate student at VCU-Qatar, said about her piece of art called ‘Presence.’
Walk around in the KAC exhibition gallery and you would find another simple-looking piece of photography, a digital print on Hahnemuhle paper. But look closely and it tells a complete story. Captured at a perfect moment in time, Ghayan al-Amine’s untitled piece speaks loads about the process of development.
“It is spontaneous. I carry around my camera all the time and I film whatever I see is interesting to me,” al-Amine told Community. “Honestly, in Doha it is very hard to find authentic places to film because most of the stuff is artificial. I try to take a longer road and find some place with interesting pictures. I am looking for real people who have stories to tell,” the young artist added.
He has captured a bulldozer at work while a man passes by, disconnected with the entire process of destruction and construction. “I am not interested in before and after as it is all manufactured. I am interested in this process where one era is replacing the other,” said al-Amine.
He said the key element in the picture is the human. The person dressed in the traditional gown seems disconnected. The fast shutter speed gives the photo a streaking effect as the background is sharp but without the human in it, no connection can be developed.
“Everyday workers are real people who are alive and they are constructing Doha. So I have tried to give them a little bit of recognition,” he added. He could already see a red dot appear next to his name tag which meant his piece of art had already been purchased by one of the visitors.
Next to him is Najla al-Khalifa’s ‘Majlis’. It is a piece in ‘relief print variable’ depicting a human-animal hybrid, showing humans with animal heads conversing while sitting in a majlis (the traditional gathering place for Arab men).
“I drew it digitally then I laser cut it and then I inked it before putting it through the press,” said Najla about how she executed her idea.
Talking to Community, she explained her idea that people’s behaviour says a lot about them starting from the place they choose to sit in to the way they interact with each other in a majlis. “These behaviours match the behaviours of certain animals or at least how we believe those animals would behave,” said the young artist.
The owl is wisdom, for instance, representative of a wise person. Vulture means the person is talkative and gossips a lot. Bear is an animal representing a big person who is polite at the same time, she added.
Graduating as Graphic Designer from VCU-Qatar, Najla invites the viewer to read the piece, question it and define him/herself among these human-animal hybrid.
“Inspired by similar projects in United States, community supported initiatives connect cultural procedures with their audience through a tested market concept, encouraging face-to-face connections and community building,” said KAC in its statement.
For the programme’s second year, the KAC received more than 250 artworks in response to a call for submission sent out in April this year. With the help of three professional judges, Faraj Daham (Artist), Leonore-Namkha Beschi (Assistant Curator, Mathaf) and Rhys Himsworth (Director Painting & Printmaking VCUQ), the KAC team picked 20 artworks for this year’s exhibition.
Christine Wang, an artist who has just completed her residence in Painting and Print-making department of VCUQatar, also features among the selected 20 artists. Her painting work called ‘World Map’ shows global map with arrows radiating from the centre.
It examines the effect of commodity fetishism on the environment. “The idea is saying, ‘I am very stupid’ and then having the arrows pointed everywhere is like kind of absolving oneself of responsibility and I think the piece really is asking everyone to take responsibility for their actions,” Wang told Community.
It is a reaction to certain scientists who are talking about global warming and talking about some policy-makers who are saying, Oh! China needs to reduce their emissions or India needs reduction, but actually, the culture of over-consumption started in the West, North America, she added.
Reema Saeed Abu Hassan, an architecture student at American University of Sharjah, presents at the exhibition her idea of ‘Vertebral Arch’, a 3D model inspired by the formation of spine of a tortoise shell.
“It is very well integrated, everything is seen as one piece. I am studying architecture so I try to bring in some spatial qualities,” Reema told Community.
Ruchi Goel, a microbiologist by profession and a self-taught artist, comes up with her idea of ‘Born’, a digital print on paper. “Though I enjoy all kinds of subjects for my work, my favourite is woman, who is full of mystery thanks to her enigmatic emotions and expressions,” said Goel.
She has used knife on acrylic paint on canvas as her idea on display. The idea is whenever some things come together, whenever there is peace and harmony, something new is born, the artist added. Besides having some practice at Visual Art Centre in Katara, she has been a self-taught artist for the most part.
The other artists featuring in the exhibition include George Awde, Ryan Browning, Anthea Devotta, Deena Hammam, Zoe Hawk, Aziza Iqbal, Faissal El-Malak, Omer Mohammed, Leila Natsheh, Sandeep S., Christto & Andrew, Aisha al-Sowaidi, Paulo Meunier Viana and Vatyma. The exhibition runs till June 4.
BELOW:
1) REFLECTIVE: Najla al-Khalifa’s Majlis on display at CSA.
2) UNIQUE: Young artist Emelina Soares’s photographic artwork.
3) COMMODITY FETISHISM: Christine Wang’s idea of effect of commodity fetishism on environment.
4) GROUP POSER: CSA artists with KAC team at the opening of the exhibition.
