By Umer Nangiana
For his recent art work, the ideas come from diverse source of inspiration and he executes them in a unique fashion. Sitting in front of a giant wooden frame weaving metal wire into seemingly abstract forms, Qatari artist Ahmed al-Asadi invokes curiosity.
How would he go about it? What are the wires for? How would he put colour into it? These are some of the questions that strike a viewer’s mind on seeing him work on some of his unfinished multimedia artworks.
From a distance it looks he is creating shapes with the wires and on closer observation it seems the net of wires is a foundation for a bigger installation. Working from Souq Waqif Art Centre for the exhibition titled, A Colourful Eid, al-Asadi has all the answers to such and more queries in his head and he puts them forward with his finished work for the viewers to see.
With all his original ideas, this self-taught Qatari artist is not only creating exquisite pieces of art, he is also serving the important job of preserving archaeological treasures in his homeland.
Taking inspiration from rock carvings found in the archaeological site of Al Jassasiya, in the northeast of Doha, al-Asadi has used multimedia extensively to execute some impressive artworks. “I started working on this because not many people knew about it. They were not aware of the presence of these rare symbols and rock carvings found in Qatar,” al-Asadi told Community. “Also, I wanted to know more about this place and therefore managed to do my research on it during my art work,” he added.
To keep the samples of rock carvings preserved on his canvas as close to the real as possible, the artist’s mixing and selection of colours has been immaculate. With the metal work, he mostly uses paper mash, gypsum and collages of multiple other materials.
“I got the inspiration from Al Jassasiya. There is a sample of this kind of designs in the hills, rocks and the ground. They say it is from 250 years ago. However, it looks modern,” said al-Asadi.
He gets his ideas from the archaeological site and translates them on to canvas. What way a certain piece of art would go and what shape the initially vague-looking diagrams will take are all preset in his mind. And he takes his time to finish them. However, what comes out is there to stay for long.
Besides creating awareness about the unique and rare archaeological sites in Qatar, al-Asadi is playing his part in preserving the historical wealth for the future generations to see.
Threatened by expansion and urbanisation, the Al Jassasiya site was endangered when intervention by artists like al-Asadi and other experts saved it a few years ago.
Al-Asadi said he has been working on the project for 15 years since he first discovered the site during a journey in 1999 where he found some excavations taking place in the region. As a means to create awareness about the monumental site, he started incarnating it into artwork.
The exceptional rock carvings were found to be in good condition and on closer observation and detailed survey the experts found more than 900 engravings of geometric patterns and images of animals and ships.
These images have been making their way to al-Asadi’s canvas during his exploration of way to highlight the older generation’s artwork. Little is known about the site and how it came into being and who were the architects, however, the state of their preservation and that too in this big number makes the engravings a vital aspect of Qatar’s heritage.
Through his work, the Qatari artist, in a way, has also been giving a meaning to the discovered art work in these engravings while much about them remains unknown. Although, open to interpretation for viewers, his art pieces revolving around the concepts found in the Al Jassasiya rocks depict some meaning hidden in the symbols created by the original artists.
Most of the material about the site and pieces found in it come from guesswork while a lot is open to further studies and very little is known for certain, but al-Asadi has successfully diverted people’s attention to one of the world’s unique and historical discoveries.
A versatile artist, al-Asadi keeps on changing his style and medium of work to shun monotony and bring variety and colour to his artworks. Currently working on pieces of abstract art again on multimedia, the artist is in the process of producing works other than those centred on Al Jassasiya.
“For the next one year, my theme colour would be red,” the artist told Community. Why red? “There has been so much of bloodshed in the world in the recent times. You could see it on TV everywhere and it touched me,” he replied.
After seeing the Al Jassasiya example, one wonders what is about to come out of his repertoire. Al-Asadi started his artistic journey in 1993. He is a member of Qatar Youth Centre and Heritage and Modernization Group. He also remained a member of Qatari Plastic Art Society from 1994 to 2003.
He has won many national and international awards for his works, which include Honorable Mention Award from Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2001. Al-Asadi has participated in multiple art initiatives and competitions both internationally and across the region.
Some notable participation include the Qatari Plastic Arts Youth Exhibition, Alexandria 1996, the Exhibition of Qatari Cultural Week, Johannesburg-South Africa 1996, the Fifth Plastic Arts and Arabic Calligraphy for GCC Artists Doha 1999, the First Islamic Arts Biennale Tehran 2000, 4th Egyptian International Print Triennially 2003 and Mobile Gulf Cooperation Council countries’ Plastic Arts Exhibition Touring USA 2003.