By Umer Nangiana
Coming up with innovative ways to express their interesting ideas, five seniors from the Painting and Printmaking department of Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar (VCU-Qatar) are currently exhibiting their artwork at Katara Art Centre (KAC).
‘Alternative Realities’, a group exhibition featuring artworks by the five students, investigates, from the mechanical to the surreal, the perception through various cultural, historical and philosophical threads.
Working across a range of media that originate from the locus of Painting and Printmaking, the artists also incorporate sculpture, photography and video. The young artists include Hana al-Saadi, the winner of Damien Hirst challenge and Emelina Soares, the winner of Create and Inspire Contest earlier this year.
Their other three colleagues Salma Hassaan, Roda al-Nasr and Sumam Azzam are equally impressive with their ideas. ‘Misplaced’, a glass camera that projects an image, a print, opposite is all conceived and created by Salma through casting. It is a fascinating idea that besides its extraordinary mechanics looks good as well.
“It is processed through casting steps. In the beginning, I made the camera in clay and then created a mould for it, after that I filled the mould with broken pieces of glass and kept it in the kiln for five days. I had to do this process in Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond as we do not have the same equipment in VCU-Qatar,” Salma told Community.
The device works such that images are projected onto the camera and light passes through only the lens part, creating a circular projection rather than the rectangle we see from a regular projection.
Her other piece ‘Ephemeral Minds’, glass canvases, is similar to the camera as it too involves casting technique; however, it goes through three additional steps: Making a mould from small canvases, filling the mould with wax, taking out the wax from the mould and carving on it and then making another mould from the new wax pieces, filling it with glass and keeping it in the kiln, according to the young artist.
She also has on display a screen print and a lithograph.
“The process takes a take very long time. They talk about the conscience and the reality of a person and his surroundings,” she added. After completing her graduation, she aspires to travel the world, find an artist residency and get a Master’s degree.
Hana al-Saadi, who won the Damien Hirst Challenge with her artwork called ‘Snail Prints Factory’, has an ‘Untitled’ piece on display at the exhibition which is as striking as it is thought-provoking.
“I have not found a title for the piece yet, so it is Untitled. The idea is about mixing reality with a lie. I wanted the piece to create an illusion that is inspired by a cartoon aesthetic. This is done by changing the physicality of the objects,” said Hana, referring to her artwork, a mixed media variable sculpture.
“My inspiration came from various artists. Also, animals and cartoons tend to inspire me because it keeps me in touch with my childhood,” she added.
After her graduation, Hana intends to take a break for a year to prepare her portfolio for future studies of masters in sculpture.
A senior at VCU-Qatar’s Painting and Printmaking department, Hana said she prefers to make sculptures and her major in painting and printmaking is giving her the freedom to explore her personal interest in fine arts.
Emelina Soares is exhibiting the same artwork that won her the Create and Inspire Contest, a digital print called Third Culture.
“As an artist I feel obliged to create works that question the purpose of ones journey in life. I approach aspects of life and spirituality as concepts to discover that purpose. The aspect of understanding my identity as a third culture child has built my curiosity over the year and inspired the creation for the current piece at the group exhibition in Katara,” said Soares. She added that the piece approaches the sensitive subject matter of religion in an abstract manner.
“Being an Indian with a Portuguese history while being born and raised in Qatar has helped me develop a welcoming appreciation towards different cultures that I am a part of. I enjoy printmaking and sculpting, and have recently been working on a range of digital media,” she added.
She was one of the 12 winners of the Create and Inspire contest organised by The Crossway Foundation in partnership with Art Jameel and Qatar Museums. The prize was a two-week trip to Brazil.
The exhibition at KAC marks the first stage in the run up to the final show, and the works exhibited act as a prelude for what may be.
“It will be a great opportunity for the department students to show their work outside of the university to a broader and bigger audience and get feedback to further improve their work,” Director of Painting and Printmaking at VCU-Qatar, Rhys Himsworth, earlier told Community. The exhibition will end on October 30 and can be viewed at KAC building 5 in Katara Cultural Village.
