Calligraffiti

Deitch Takes Another Look at ‘Calligraffiti’ for New York Gallery

Leila Pazooki, This Is Not Green, 2009,  Illuminated neon tubes,  19.29 x 78.74 in / 49 x 200 cm. Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery.

by Carol Kino, The ArtsBeat, New York Times

Last month Jeffrey Deitch resigned as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Although he won’t step down immediately, the art world is abuzz with rumors about what he’ll do next. Perhaps a clue to his future interests may be found  in “Calligraffiti: 1984-2013,” an upcoming show at the Leila Heller Gallery in Chelsea opening Sept. 5.

It will explore the relationship between graffiti and calligraphy with the work of nearly 50 artists, from Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat to Keith Haring and his protégé “LA II” (as Angel Ortiz is known). Many of the artists are Middle Eastern, including Shirin Neshat and Hossein Zenderoudi, and several are street artists, like the French-Tunisian star eL Seed.

The show essentially updates “Calligraffiti,” an exhibition that he and Ms. Heller collaborated on in 1984, back when he was a Citibank art adviser with a passion for street art, and she was an Upper East Side dealer specializing in art from the Middle East, primarily Iran.

Curated by Mr. Deitch, the 1984 show juxtaposed graffitists like Fab Five Freddy with Mr. Zenderoudi and modernist scrawlers like Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet. (Mr. Deitch came up with the idea, he said, while he was between apartments and sleeping in Ms. Heller’s gallery.)

This time, Mr. Deitch served as Ms. Heller’s sounding board, rather than curator. But he is excited about the new possibilities for street art offered by the turmoil in the Middle East, especially as exemplified by eL Seed, who started as a street artist and is now working on a major commission from the Qatar Museums Authority to paint a series of tunnels in Doha.

“He is in a very genuine way working in this fusion between a calligraphic technique coming out of Arabic script,” Mr. Deitch said, “and an awareness of international graffiti language. When we did the show originally in 1984, there wasn’t anyone like this.” But now, he added, “there is this actual fusion of the two traditions.”

In the catalog he wrote that, ”Graffiti has become an important part of the imagery that has defined the Arab Spring.” While New York’s early taggers had to rely on subway cars to carry their messages, he added, “today new communications platforms like Instagram and YouTube have given street art a new resonance,” instantly communicated around the world.

Mr. Deitch is already at work on several independent projects beyond the one or two he intends to complete for the Museum of Contemporary Art. He would not talk about them until he had “concrete plans with the dates, space.” But yes, he confirmed, they will be in New York.

Pouran Jinchi, Transparency #13, 2012, Plexiglass and permanent marker, 23 x 3 in / 58.42 x 7.62 cm. Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery.

Shirin Neshat, Zahra, 2008, C-print and ink, 11 x 14 in / 27 x 36 cm, Unique. Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery.

 

 Hadieh Shafie, Grid 27, 2013, Ink and acrylic on Arches paper, 29.5 x 41 in / 75 x 104 cm. Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery.

Farhar Moshiri, Untitled (My Heart is Your Love’s Play Toy), 2004, Oil on canvas, 57 x 44 in / 144.8 x 111.8 cm. Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery.

Jackson Pollock, Untitled 1, 1951 (Printed 1964),  Screen print,  23 x 29 in / 58.42 x 73.66 cm. Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery.

Via Leila Heller Gallery and The ArtsBeat, New York Times

Traces

Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Marwan Sahmarani, Selma Gürbüz and Shahpour Pouyan 

19 June - 18 July 2013 

In the physical sense, traces can be visible marks left on a surface. There is also an historical and cultural sense. Our forthcoming exhibition Traces brings together the works of four artists, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Marwan Sahmarani, SelmaGürbüz and Shahpour Pouyan, highlighting their work on paper and explores how the intrinsic and associative qualities of the medium affects their work.

In today’s world when writing can be done on a keyboard and sketches made onscreen, paper can seem like an odd survival from an earlier age. The permanence of a mark of ink on paper sheet, which can only be written on once, seems to contradict the perceived fragility of the medium. Yet the very traits that make paper seem an anachronism in comparison to other media are also its strengths: they bequeath it a timeless and evocative quality. Once a trace is laid on to the paper, it can hardly be erased. Paper works cannot be over-worked or worked over. They tread a careful line between forward planning and spontaneous execution.

Paper is indelibly associated with books and the dissemination of knowledge. From its origins in China more than 2000 years ago, to its westward progression through Middle East and on to medieval Europe, through industrialization, up until the internet revolution of recent decades, paper was the primary medium of record.

In the Middle East until modern times paper was also a main medium for representation, with miniatures and diagrams, their strong graphic quality quite unlike easel painting on canvas. This abstract quality lends itself well to a contemporary context, as Marwan Sahramani’s paintings of comical militaristic figures on an almost translucent paper and Selma Gürbüz’s whimsical paintings on a coarser surface attest. Both recall miniatures but in quite different ways- Sahmarani with his finely wrought details embellishing gestural washes of colour, while Gürbüz works appear almost as illustrations emancipated from some giant apocryphal manuscript.

Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s Baruther Strasse, an imprint on paper taken from the surface of a wall, is from her ongoing project that highlights historically or symbolically significant walls in Berlin and Tunis. Linking recent history to a more distant past, the wall in question is from a 19th century unplanned graveyard in Berlin which gradually developed into fully fledged cemetery when wealthier families began to build tombs and crypts, which eventually formed an imposing wall around the compound, which reminds Kaabi-Linke of how empty spaces around Berlin were occupied by squatters during the 1980s and 1990s.

Recent works by Shahpour Pouyan extend his commentary on power and domination. As an artist well-versed in the conventions of the Persian miniature, paradoxically his move to paper as a medium sees him downplay overt references to the genre, instead exploring the graphic qualities of the medium. His recent series of drawings on paper are on a grand scale, singling out particular objects whose images captivate him, treating them like devotional images or oversized illustrations from an architectural treatise or scientific manual. Post Hot Point is an amalgam of golden mosque-like dome and Capitol-like white rotunda, while his new series depicts the engine of a V2 rocket, an early ballistic missile produced by Germany at the latter part of the Second World War using forced concentration camp labour. Werner Von Braun, the designer of this rocket, was later captured by American soldiers and brought to the US to work on its space programme. In the process he became an American hero with his successful Apollo moon landings. Pouyan dwells on the unfamiliar shape of the engine rather than the rocket itself, superimposing it on architectural floorplans.

Artists 

Nadia Kaabi-Linke (1978, Tunisia) has had solo exhibitions in Calcutta, Experimenter Gallery, 2013, Dubai, Lawrie Shabibi, 2012 and Berlin, Galerie Christian Hosp, 2010 and a variety of group shows. She has participated in the Kochi Biennale 2012, Liverpool Biennale, 2012, the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011, the 9th Sharjah Biennale, 2009 and the 25th Alexandria Biennale in 2009. In 2011 she was one of the recipients of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize. Her works are part of important public and private collections including the MoMA, New York, The Kamel Lazaar Collection and Abraaj Corporate Collection. 

Marwan Sahmarani (1970, Lebanon) has had solo exhibitions in Beirut, London, Montreal and Dubai and group exhibitions in Washington and Mexico. His works have also featured in Told/ Untold /Retold at Mathaf, Doha 2010, and his works are part of their collection. In 2010 Sahmarani was the recipient of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize and his work The Feast of the Damned was showcased at Art Dubai that year. 

Shahpour Pouyan (1979, Iran) recently completed his MFArt at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Pouyan is the recipient of the Tehran Contemporary Museum of Art's grant of residence at International Cite Des Artes, Paris, France and has exhibited in various solo exhibitions in Tehran and Dubai and group shows in Paris, New York, Beirut, Canada and Serbia. His works are part of the notable private collections in Los Angeles, London, Dubai and Istanbul as well as an important Turkish institution. 

Selma Gurbuz (1960, Turkey) is one of Turkey's foremost artists. She has exhibited extensively both in Turkey and abroad with recent solo shows at Rampa, Istanbul, 2013, Lawrie Shabibi, 2011 and Rose Issa Projects, 2010. Selma Gürbüz's work are part of public collections which include The British Museum, London, Istanbul Modern, Santral Istanbul, Istanbul Bilgi University, Project 4L, Istanbul, Galerie Maeght, Paris and the Painting and Sculpture Museum, Ankara.

Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Baruther Strasse, 2008, Ink, paper on canvas, 90 x 64 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Shahpour Pouyan, Post Hot Point, 2012, Acrylic and pencil, 182 x 152 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Selma Gürbüz, Sun Loney Bride, 2013, Ink on handmade paper, 200 x 115.5 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Selma Gürbüz, Bird's Nest, 2013, Ink on handmade paper, 200 x 115.5 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Marwan Sahmarani, Untitled, 2011, Ink, pigment and varnish on paper 145 x 75 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Marwan Sahmarani, Untitled, 2011, Ink, pigment and varnish on paper 145 x 75 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Marwan Sahmarani, Untitled, 2011, Ink, pigment and varnish on paper 145 x 75 cm. Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi.

Via Lawrie Shabibi

Female Warriors of Art at Tate Modern

by Karen Ruimy, The Huffington Post, UK

As I was sitting at the Buying Committee of the Tate Modern, my eyes were arrested in awe and also complete ignorance by a piece from an artist I did not know about, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian. I was struck by the strength of her art.

The fact that she is a woman working in Iran, in her 80s, made her even more striking. The committee could not complete the purchase. My heart was so sure: this is a major artist, from the depth of the Middle East, this area of the world that is going through some dark ages. She is a star, we cannot let this piece go, let's find a solution.

What made me think of the strength I found in Louise Bourgeois? I still cannot help comparing those women and their force in their art.

So I started to find out about Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian. I found she spent her earlier years in New York, studied at Parsons School of Design and Cornell University, collaborated with Warhol, was friends with Pollock, De Kooning and many other geniuses. But she decided to go back to her country where she developed her art with traditional Iranian crafts like reverse glass painting, cut mirrors and Sufi symbolism.

This woman travelled to America and Paris searching for art education. And she always tried to come back to her land despite so much segregation for her as a woman, as an artist-woman... her art was confiscated and burned during the revolution. And eventually she went back to live in her country.

Then I found another woman artist when I was at the Tate Committee, a woman from Lebanon, and she is the same age! What is going on with this generation of women who have lived in difficult political backgrounds and in difficult times? Where did they find this force of nature?

Madame Saloua Raouda Choucair. Please look at her art, now showing in Tate Modern in London. This woman has worked in geometry with such a poetic view, with softness - her sculptures are geometric contructs that can be stacked like bricks or vertebrae. She also worked with the symbolism of Sufism. She was trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts, a close student of Fernand Léger.

She did not sell anything in Beirut until 1962 because she would not conform to the art taste of the moment. She was driven by her search within those geometric figures that she created like verses of poems. She lived in Beirut during the Civil War, her studio was partly bombed. But she also stayed in her country and continued to express her art there.

Those women were able, in the 20th Century, to manifest through their art form an absolute of strength, of beauty, a driving force no matter what were the politics, the social environment, the public eye: they were standing in front of any crowd with their stubborn art. These women, like Louise Bourgeois, were ceaselessly working on their expression without being impressed, or stopped by judgment, nor threat. It's a psychology I admire. It just wakes up in me great sentiments of life, of courage, of desire to express myself no matter what...

They are my mentors, my sisters, my heroes. They were able through their peaceful art to fight against ignorance, never desisting despite the threat of war or revolution. They brought their intelligence and gift to bear on their national culture and creation, not looking at it like a sub-culture - although they lived and trained in Western temples of contemporary art.

These women stand out in our history, leaving for us all examples of dignity, steadiness, and freedom. We all need to be inspired by those women. Unstoppable.



Karen Ruimy is co-founder of the GREAT initiative - Gender, Rights & Equality Trust www.thegreatinitiative.com Her new album Come With Me is out on May 28 available for download from iTunes http://bit.ly/145noRw. Karen will be appearing at Mind Body Spirit at Earls Court 24-27 May. Read her art and spirituality blog at www.karenruimy.com


Via The Huffington Post, UK

Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian and Turkish Artists

April 20, 2013 – September 15, 2013 | Public Opening April 20 7:00-9:00 pm Audain & O'Brian Galleries

Safar/Voyage will be the first major exhibition of contemporary art from these regions to be shown in Vancouver.  It is constructed as a journey in the company of 16 artists, each of whom is neither fixed inside the territories of the Middle East nor permanently diasporic. These artists define themselves and the world according to their own creative representations, often informed by culturally specific conditions.

Wrapping the globe, their diverse artworks speak to the universal theme of voyage (a translation of the Persian safar), from the external and geographical to the internal, emotional, and existential. They acknowledge the realities of political turmoil and revolution, and how politics frames both trauma and desire, whether individual or collective. Voyage is seen to take many forms.

Expressed in media ranging from painting, sculpture, and video installation to performance and a carpet, it is as innocuous as tourism (with a twist), as disturbing as war—the violent crossing of borders—and as philosophical as the transience of life. The artists of Safar/Voyage are positioned as our guides, their visions mined for reflections on some of the most urgent issues of our time.

The artists featured are Adel Abidin, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Nazgol Ansarinia, Kutlug Ataman, Ayman Baalbaki, Ali Banisadr, Taysir Batniji, Mona Hatoum, Susan Hefuna, Raafat Ishak, Y.Z. Kami, Farhad Moshiri, Youssef Nabil, Hamed Sahihi, Mitra Tabrizian, and Parviz Tanavoli.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Fereshteh Daftari, former curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. MOA Coordinating Curator Dr. Jill Baird, Curator, Education & Public Programs.  The exhibit will be accompanied by a publication.The exhibition will feature a wide range of public programs including curator and artist talks, musical performances, as well as the Hassan and Nezhat Khosrowshahi Distinguished Lecture Series featuring talks by noted architects and scholars Nader Ardalan, Daniel Roehr, Hossein Amanat, and Abbas Amanat.

The programming will also feature a MOA Global Dialogue on Nomadic Aesthetics and the Importance of Place sponsored by Wesbild Holdings.   Artists, curators, filmmakers, and scholars will participate in a three-day public discussion on ideas surrounding nomadic aesthetics, the importance of place, curatorial approaches, and the role of institutions in the representations of contemporary art and culture. The MOA Global Dialogue will concludes with a special feature, “In Conversation with Jian Ghomeshi” in MOA’s Great Hall.

Invited speakers include Fereshteh Daftari, Venetia Porter, Anthony Shelton, Tony Chaker, Jill Baird, Jian Ghomeshi, Derek Gregory, Peter Morin, Karen Duffek, Jayce Saloum, Glenn Alteen, and Laura U. Marks.

For a printable listing of public programs and events, click here


Image Credit:  Kutlug Ataman, Strange Space, 2009. Courtesy of the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and MOA.


Via MOA

Tectonic presents a new movement in art

 

Back to Back and Guarded, by Holton Rower. Courtesy The Moving Museum and The National.

by Anna Seaman, The National

Cynics may take some convincing, but Aya Mousawi and Simon Sakhai are confident that with their exhibition Tectonic, which opened amid the pomp and circumstance of the quarterly Art Night last month, they are bringing something totally new to Dubai.

Tectonic was the inaugural event for The Moving Museum, a platform for international artists to gather in a group show of solo exhibitions. The main difference from a regular exhibition is that rather than having a curator, artists were selected by a board of advisers – museum curators, artists and prominent, international cultural figureheads – for a “combined perspective”. Presented in a “museum infrastructure”, the idea is that this show somehow encapsulates the global art conversation at an institutional level.

It is an ambitious project and the question as to whether or not they are capturing the international spirit or simply presenting an interesting collection of art cannot really be answered, but it is certainly a memorable show. At the main entrance is the Iranian artist Soheila Sokhanvari’s stuffed horse, whose legs are wrapped around a concrete, turquoise balloon that symbolises the Iranian revolution. Further inside, Holton Rower, the grandson of the American sculptor Alexander Calder, has created magnificent, almost hallucinogenic poured-paint pieces and paired them with an installation of a paper chain made from real US dollar notes. A back wall is adorned by the Turner Prize-winner Jeremy Deller’s Folksong and a variety of video performance-pieces pepper the space. Of the 24 artists, only Slavs and Tatars, an art collective from Eastern Europe, the Iraqi-American Michael Rakowitz and the Iranian artist Ali Banisadr have exhibited in the region before. The 300 pieces, therefore, do offer a window into something new.

“It is its own thing,” says Sakhai. “We are an organisation with an aim to support and present contemporary art practice and to have a sustaining model that makes it happen in the future.”  When discussing the concept, Sakhai and Mousawi asked themselves what makes a museum and decided that it was not the space itself, or the art, or even the curator, but a combination of all these things. “We took all the museum elements such as the quality of production, educational programming, the publications, the social mission and goal of reaching out to the community and made it into something that travels. In that way, it is much richer.”

Mousawi adds that Dubai doesn’t currently have a museum infrastructure to support a show like this and “in that way we are filling a gap in the region”.

Although after Dubai, The Moving Museum will go to Venice for the Biennale and then London for Frieze, the works presented in Europe will be totally different and from a different group of artists.  “The geographic lines of everything are breaking at the moment,” says Sakhai. “The whole art world exists in a place not bound by geography and so there is room for ideas other than simply stationary places. People come from all over the world for art fairs and biennials and there is another space created because of these events – we want to be a part of that.”

At Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the pair have taken over an exhibition venue that was earmarked as a hotel development, but never realised. It is an empty concrete shell located across from the Art Dubai headquarters and known only as G9. Were it not for the lack of air conditioning, it would be an ideal gallery space. However, with the soaring Dubai temperatures holding off for the time being, the space works really well for this ambitious show. As for the concept, the jury is still out.

Tectonic runs in G9, DIFC, until April 24.

Ali Banisadr Coercion 2012. Courtesy The Moving Museum and The National.

Via The National

Art Dubai 2013: A diverse affair

Galleries from 30 nations converge on the city for Art Dubai 2013. Raising awareness is top priority

 

The letter that never arrived, 2013, by Bita Ghezelayagh. Courtesy Gulf News

by Jyoti Kalsi, Gulf News

A spotlight on West African art, an open-air sculpture gallery by the sea, and an in-depth look at MENA (Middle East Nervous Anxiety) — these are some of the highlights of Art Dubai 2013, to be held at Madinat Jumeirah from March 20 to March 23. The seventh edition of the art fair, which is presented in partnership with the Abraaj Group and sponsored by Cartier, will feature 75 galleries from 30 countries, showcasing latest works by more than 500 artists. Among the booths to look out for is Arndt Gallery’s (Berlin) recreation of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye’s recent exhibition of Gothic sculptures at the Louvre in Paris; London gallery Victoria Miro’s solo show by legendary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama; and a group exhibition of kinetic art by Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta.

“The fact that we have galleries from 30 countries makes us the most global art fair. But we are also proud to be the largest showcase for artists from the Arab world,” Fair Director Antonia Carver says.

This year, the fair’s Marker section is focused on West Africa and features galleries from Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana and Senegal. The theme of these concept stands, curated by Lagos-based curator Bisi Silva, is the rapidly evolving nature of West African cities and the impact of these changes on urban society. “Marker exemplifies our aim of making Art Dubai a place of discovery and cross-cultural exchange. Last year, our focus on Indonesia led to the start of many long-term exchanges between Indonesia and the Gulf region, including a section on the Arab art world at the Biennial in Yogyakarta. This year we chose to look at West Africa because we have seen that there are extraordinary artists and art centres there. We want to create awareness about art from that region and encourage cultural interactions and greater synergies that build on the historic and present links between Africa and the Middle East,” Carver says.

Although it is a commercial event, Art Dubai has also played an important role in creating awareness and understanding about contemporary art and engaging the local community with art through its extensive non-commercial programme of curatorial and educational projects. These include free public seminars and talks, art workshops and tours, and various commissioned projects. New curatorial elements added this year are a mobile art gallery located in a truck that will visit different areas of the city; and Sculpture on the Beach — an exhibition of large-scale artworks located on the Mina A’Salam beach. The artworks selected by curator Chus Martinez range from Iranian artist Bitta Fayyazi’s quirky figures, made from pipes and broken porcelain, to Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri’s steel creations. “This picturesque location gives our galleries the freedom to think beyond the confines of their booths and to display large-scale artworks,” Carver says.

The educational programme has also been extended this year to include the Sheikha Manal Little Artists Programme for children and Campus Art Dubai, an intensive six-month programme for artists and curators. “We have expanded our educational activities because there are few art courses available here and we are aware that Art Dubai has a role to play as a catalyst in developing the art scene. Campus Art Dubai is a structured course designed and conducted by experts to teach every aspect of creating and exhibiting art, ranging from practical aspects such as shipping artworks to creative ones such as conceptualising and curating a show,” Carver explains.

The fair is honouring renowned Iranian artist Farideh Lashai, who passed away recently, by dedicating Art Dubai Projects 2013 to her memory. Under this not-for-profit initiative, Art Dubai has commissioned 12 artists to create performances and site-specific works that explore the fabric, economy and theatrical nature of an art fair. Lashai has a strong presence at the fair through a video installation titled Between the motion/ And the act/ Falls the Shadow. The work occupies an entire room and comprises a series of epigrammatic film shots taken from commercial Farsi cinema of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The images evoke the popular vernacular culture of cafés and symbolise the typical nightlife in Iran during that period. And they are projected on opposite walls, making viewers a part of the entire experience of a bygone era.

The other projects range from Chinese artist Shi Jinsong’s The Inner Garden, created with trunks of felled ghaf trees and found objects from around the UAE, to Pakistani artist Ehsan Ul Haq’s lifesize sculpture of a herd of donkeys that comments on ideas of control, force and meek acceptance of authority.

While Hind Bin Demaithan is posting video blogs about her experiences as an Emirati studying in the United States, Lebanese artist Joe Namy has created a performance inspired by unique Emirati traditional dance and music that was once used for ritual healing. And Kuwaiti artiste Fatima Al Quadiri’s “The official soundtrack of the fair”, a remixed piece of music that will be played at predetermined times at the fair venue, is an innovative way of communicating with visitors.

As usual, Art Dubai visitors will get the first look at the new artworks created by the winners of the Abraaj Group Art Prize. This year’s winners — Lebanese artists Vartan Avakian and Rayyane Tabet, Eman Essa from Egypt, Huma Mulji from Pakistan and Syrian Hrair Sarkissian have been working alongside guest curator Murtaza Vali for several months, and will unveil their ambitious projects on the opening night of the fair. This year, the work of the winners of the Hamdan International Photography Award will also be unveiled at Art Dubai.

The presence at Art Dubai of leading gallerists, artists, collectors, curators and art experts from around the world has encouraged galleries and art institutions in the UAE and the region to plan other major art events during this time. The array of exhibitions, projects and events taking place this month are all being promoted under an umbrella initiative titled Art Week. Besides Art Dubai, other Art Week events include Design Days Dubai, the only product- and furniture-design fair in Asia (March 18-21 in Downtown Dubai); Sikka, a fair organised by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority to showcase work by UAE-based artists (March 14-24, in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood); and museum shows and other events in the UAE and Qatar. Most Dubai galleries have planned major shows by their top artists during this month, and the city’s developing art districts such as Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz and the Dubai International Financial Centre have organised “Galleries Nights” to celebrate the simultaneous opening of new shows at several spaces.

For art lovers, Art Week and Art Dubai 2013 offer a great opportunity to view and buy the best contemporary art from the region and the world, to discover new artists and art genres, to attend stimulating talks and discussions by art experts and to interact with artists and art professionals from every corner of the globe.

Global Art Forum

The Global Art Forum, held in Doha and Dubai, is a key element of Art Dubai’s non-commercial programme. It brings together leading international art professionals as well as experts from various other fields to discuss contemporary artistic and cultural issues. The Forum is presented by Dubai Culture and held in partnership with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Qatar Museums Authority). It will open in Doha on March 17 and 18 and then move to Madinat Jumeirah from March 20 to 23.

The seventh edition of the forum is titled “It Means This”, directed by Istanbul-based writer and editor H.G. Masters, and commissioned by writer Shumon Basar. The forum will look at the vocabulary of the contemporary art world by exploring the concept of “definitionism” and investigating the words, terms, clichés and misunderstandings that proliferate in the art world and beyond. The focus will be on defining (or redefining) words, phrases and ideas we think we know, and those we need to know, to navigate the 21st century. Each session or element of the forum will discuss a keyword ranging from familiar ones such as Heritage, Free Zone, Score and Place to less familiar terms such as Academese, Drone Fiction and Neologism. The participants will analyse, dissect and interpret the term through talks, debates, performances, TV clips, new publications, films, music, and much more. The session on MENA (Middle East Nervous Anxiety), which will look at why a lot of people have this anxiety about the region, promises to be particularly interesting.

More than 40 prominent personalities are slated to participate, such as political scientist Dr Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, poet and author Mourid Barghouti, former REM lead singer and artist Michael Stipe, writer-editor Charles Arsene-Henry, artist Manal Al Dowayan, Dar Al-Ma’mun founder Omar Berrada; curator Reem Fadda, anthropologist Uzma Z. Rizvi, composer and musician Andre Vida, art patron and commentator Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, and art critic Kaelen Wilson-Goldie. The forum also includes several commissioned projects and publications.

“A recent survey indicates that the Global Art Forum is now the biggest annual art conference in the world. And we are trying to expand it beyond the art world by inviting experts from various fields. But our aim is to tackle big subjects in an accessible and interactive way,” Carver says.

Other elements

Artists-in-Residence (A.i.R) Dubai: The six artists selected this year for the annual residency programme run by Art Dubai, Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture and Tashkeel are Emirati artists Ebtisam Abdul Aziz, Reem Falaknaz and Ammar Al Attar, and Dina Danish, Joe Namy and Yudi Noor from Asia and the Middle East. They have been working with curator Bérénice Saliou since January to create new works that will be displayed in their studios in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood at an Open Studios exhibition, running alongside the Sikka fair. The international artists have also been commissioned to create site-specific works.

Shaikha Manal Little Artists programme: This is a newly launched art education project for children and teenagers aged 3-14. It includes workshops led by Zid Zid Kids, the Morocco-based trilingual children’s art education specialists, plus sketchbooks and discovery tours led by UAE-based artists. A highlight of the programme is a workshop where children will create a shadow puppet theatre. This programme is held under the patronage and guidance of Shaikha Manal Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Women’s Establishment, wife of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

Radio Station: London-based radio producer and presenter Fari Bradley has created a dedicated radio station located on site at Art Dubai that will do local and worldwide broadcasts of interviews with artists, curators and others.

The Hatch: This is a stairwell transformed into an intimate space for screening films and videos. Curated by Egyptian artist Maha Maamoun, the screenings will include recent work by four upcoming artists. The video programmes are screened in collaboration with The Pavilion Downtown Dubai and will be shown there throughout April.

dXb Store: This pop-up store selling limited-edition objects, jewellery, scarves, portable furniture, stationery, clothes and other products created by UAE-based designers and artists can be found at Sikka, Design Days Dubai and Art Dubai.

Art Dubai’s VIP programme: This is for collectors and museum groups and includes trips to Doha, Abu Dhabi, the Sharjah Biennial and other places in the region; visits to local artists’ studios and homes of local collectors; and other activities such as guided tours of the fair and an architect-led tour of Burj Khalifa.

Guided Tours for visitors: Guided tours by artists and curators have been organised for visitors who wish to learn more about the Abraaj Group Art Prize exhibition, gallery displays, Art Dubai Projects and the Sculpture Park.

Jyoti Kalsi is an arts enthusiast based in Dubai.

Via Gulf News

Muslima: Muslim Women's Art and Voices Featured at IMOW Exhibition

by Samina Ali, The Huffington Post

As the curator for the International Museum of Women’s new global exhibition, Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art & Voices, the one question I’m repeatedly asked is, “What common trait do Muslim women artists and leaders around the world share that strikes you?”

My answer: their courage.

The sad reality is that many of us have grown accustomed to –and comfortable with –seeing Muslim women portrayed as victims.

Yet brave women around the world undertake heroic acts every day. Many do so without anyone bearing witness.

 

From Iranian artist Shadi Ghadirian's series "Nil, Nil," included in the International Museum of Women’s online exhibition at muslima.imow.org. Courtesy Shadi Ghadiria and The Huffington Post

To even out that ledger, I want to share the heroic stories of three women I interviewed for Muslima. It’s just a small glimpse of what you’ll see in the upcoming exhibition, which just launched.

Dr. Shirin Ebadi is the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. For more than 40 years, Dr. Ebadi has worked to improve the lives of women and children in Iran.

Trained as a lawyer, Dr. Ebadi has represented families of writers and intellectuals who have been killed; she’s exposed conspirators behind an attack by pro-clergy assailants on students at Tehran University; and she’s represented the mother of a nine-year-old girl, Arian Golshani, who was tragically beaten to death by her father and stepmother. In this last case, Dr. Ebadi hoped to change Iranian custody laws that favor fathers over mothers.

Her life’s work to bring justice to victims has led to Dr. Ebadi being jailed, to having her life threatened countless times, and to the confiscation of her Nobel Prize medal by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.

Undeterred, in 2006, Dr. Ebadi helped forge the Nobel Women’s Initiative to magnify the power and visibility of women working for peace.

Fahima Hashim is part of the Nobel Women’s Initiative. Hashim is the director of Salamah Women’s Resource Center in Sudan, whose most successful campaign has been to reform laws on rape that, in their current form, prevent the survivors of sexual violence from accessing justice. Sudanese laws currently grant conditional immunity to officials, especially police and security forces, many of whom have been accused of rape.

Because of Hashim’s efforts through Salamah, the campaign against rape is becoming a national movement. As a result, Fahima has been interrogated repeatedly by the Sudanese security – one can only believe that it’s with the intention of scaring her into silence. It hasn’t worked.
Maria Bashir, the only female Prosecutor General in Afghanistan, has taken on the mission of educating and empowering the women in her community of Herat. Knowledge about their rights gives women courage, Bashir believes. Doubters have only to look at the numbers to see she’s right. Herat has the highest rate of crimes against women recorded. Why? The knowledge Bashir is imparting is empowering women to file police reports and claim their right to safety and equal treatment.

The sad irony is that while Maria Bashir protects women and children, her own life is under threat from both the local government and the Taliban. Bashir has sent her children out of the country to keep them safe while she moves from safe house to safe house, never stopping her work to advance women’s rights.

My hope is that this exhibition will begin a new discussion about the realities of what it means to be a Muslim woman today. And perhaps, in the process, it might even redefine what it means to be courageous.

Samina Ali is the curator of Muslima: Muslim Women's Arts & Voices, a groundbreaking online exhibition from the International Museum of Women. Ali's debut novel, "Madras on Rainy Days," was awarded the Prix Premier Roman Etranger 2005 Award in France. She is also the founder of Daughters of Hajar, a Muslim American feminist organization. 

Via The Huffington Post

A View from Afar

‘You Ask Yourself A Thousand Questions Plus One: Who Am I?’

Chador-dadar, by Haleh Anvari – London. Courtesy Galerie Kashya Hildebrand and REORIENT.

by Joobin Bekhrad, REORIENT

As the bombs from Babylon fell from above across the hazy Tehran skyline, dotting the skirt of the mountain whereon Arash once let his felicitous arrow fly, my family and I made for strange and foreign realms. Leaving the land of roses and nightingales for the shores of Albion, we first settled in England before heading further east towards the New World. Despite the fact that many of my mother’s relatives were in London at the time, my parents nonetheless opted for a new life in Canada, being more accustomed to the North American lifestyle they had enjoyed as students in the United States. True, we would be far from ‘home’ and the bulk of our ilk, and my father would not be given free reign to practice as an architect and civil engineer, but one thing was certain: we would be safe, dignified, and free.

As an immigrant child in Toronto in the early 90s, I had it made. My classrooms were always brimming with a melange of kids from far-flung corners of the earth, just like me, each with stories as unique and colourful as their accents. Not once did any one of us ever feel that we were different or peculiar in any way, even vis-à-vis our friends of Western European descent. Of course, there was no doubt that my parents spoke a funny language at home, pointed fingers at strange, bearded men on the television from time to time, and on more than one occasion sent me off to school reeking of ghormeh sabzi; but then again, stinky stews aside, that was more or less the case with everyone at the time. We didn’t make anything of it. We were kids. We just were. 

Looking back, though, perhaps I wasn’t just another immigrant child with dark hair and eyes who seamlessly integrated into Toronto’s social fabric. Unlike most of the other families we knew from ‘elsewhere’, we weren’t exactly what you’d call giveaways. My mother and father both attended University in the States in the mid-70s, where they met before returning to Iran. They spoke English without the languid, seemingly opium-induced Persian drawl, preferred ski slopes to shopping malls, and made trips to the local Iranian supermarket only when faced with dire shortages of pistachios and basmati rice. People knew we were from somewhere else; they just didn’t know where. We were often taken for Italians or Greeks, or, if someone felt they had really caught on to us, Armenians. Thus, as far as I can recall, I had a relatively Western upbringing, devoid of any of the typical feelings of displacement or awkwardness that usually rear their ugly head in the immigrant experience.

Whispers of the East #4, by  Sadegh Tirafkan. Courtesy AB Gallery and REORIENT.

As I grew older, however, and my perspective of the world around me began to undergo a metamorphosis, I started to become more aware of a blossoming Persian presence within. Was it was due to hormones and the onset of facial hair (which we so pride ourselves on), the constant admonition of my grandmother – to Irooni hasti! You are Iranian! – coming back to haunt me, or perhaps a newfound ravenous appetite for fesenjoon? Whatever it was, exactly, it prompted me – for the first time in my life – to question my identity. Was I Iranian or Canadian? Who was ‘Canadian’ anyway? Was it possible to be both? Where did I belong?

Watching Iraqi-Italian director Haider Rashid’s It’s About to Rain brought back a flood of memories, and some ever-ambiguous questions. Set in Florence, Italy, Rashid’s film revolves around Said, a second-generation Algerian Italian and his family, and their trials as ‘second-rate citizens’. After Hamid, Said’s father loses his job as a result of his employer’s suicide, the Italian Government decides that the Mahran family no longer has a valid case for staying in the country, despite Hamid’s 30 years of service in Florence and the fact that his two sons were born there. Due to the circumstances of their early years in the country, Hamid’s applications for Italian citizenship were constantly refused. Now, out of work, officially unemployed, and deemed a political threat to the country, he is given an ultimatum to return with his sons to Algeria. Despite their trying situation, one here is tempted to adopt a more positive outlook, and regard their expulsion as a homecoming of sorts; after all, The Mahrans are Algerian, aren’t they? If only things were as black and white as that. ‘What would I do in Algeria?’ Hamid asks, rhetorically. ‘My family is here. I don’t know whether it’s good or bad. I’m hanging there, torn between these two countries, these two realities. I belong to both these countries without being totally part of them’.

And thus, in a few words of despair, Hamid Mahran sums up not only my predicament, but also that of almost all the Iranian families I’ve come to know in the West. Realistically speaking, what would we do back in Iran? We’ve been here for the past 30-odd years or so. Our sons and daughters have grown up here, many of whom have started lives of their own with non-Iranian spouses. To be brutally honest, our notions of Iran as a country, for the most part, are based on rosy-hued memories of the idyllic 60s and 70s during the reign of the Shah, the nostalgic sound of Googoosh records, and the flowery splendour of our classical poetry. Compared with the Iranians who emigrated after the Revolution, those who have grown up in the West have even less to draw upon, counting themselves lucky to have even had the chance to recline in the teahouses of Shiraz, watch the sun set by the Caspian Sea, or meander through the winding bazaars of Esfahan at dusk. What many of us do not like to acknowledge is the fact that times have changed; this bird has flown. ‘Everything is different,’ explains Hamid, ‘the mindset, the jokes … Life is different. Algeria has taken its path … I’ve grown up in Italy in these 30 years. We’ve drawn apart’.

While at first Said looks upon his situation with disgust, as Rashid’s film brilliantly exposes the injustices of the Italian immigration system, the ‘bright side’ of his circumstances come to light, and his Algerian identity slowly unfurls. In an interview with an Italian journalist, as he speaks of his childhood experiences and the questions he asked himself, I can’t help but feel as if I’m gazing back into the eyes of a 15 year-old me. ‘… In those years of adolescence, when everybody has a thousand questions, you ask yourself a thousand questions plus one: am I from here, or am I from there? Who am I?’

Still from ‘It’s About to Rain’. Courtesy REORIENT.

As Said’s cause slowly gains attention, he becomes a sort of champion for the underdog, and a spokesperson for those wronged by the Italian Government. Passionately invoking his identity as a proud Florentine, it seems as if Said’s decision has been made; that is, that he has chosen his Italian identity over his Algerian one. However, as events unfold and an unlikely emotional maturity occurs within the span of a few days, Said becomes ever drawn to that strange desert environ, just south of the Mediterranean. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, is where Rashid’s cinematic romanticism reaches its zenith. In a dream, Said beholds exotic, enigmatic visions of an East, which bring to mind the travels of Sir Richard Burton, Wilfred Thesiger, and the great European ramblers of old. The images are lush, exquisite, and yet frightening at the same time, redolent with a heady Orientalist fragrance. Yes, the idea of Algeria and the Arab world that Said has in his mind may be highly exaggerated, and more the stuff of fiction than anything else, but who can blame him? Truly, one could say that Said is just as ‘Algerian’ as his fantasy.

Wading through the shimmering sands of the Sahara, the wind blowing the golden dust within his grasp back into nothingness, a faint smile emerges on Said’s face. The struggle is seemingly over, as he submits himself to the endless expanse before him. Why is it so often in the desert, that barren wilderness that ever inspires epiphanies, mystic visions, and Damascene moments in those who scale its dunes, that the mysteries of the heart unravel? ‘I don’t come from anywhere’, Said once said. ‘The end of humanity is where I want to go. It’s where I will be’.

Here, perhaps, lies the answer to my question. Caught between two worlds, I cannot say I am wholly Iranian, nor can I say that I completely identify a Westerner; but then again, why should I have to choose between the two? To do so would be to deny a part of my being. Either as a result of fate or happenstance, my story has been that of the wanderers of this illusory realm, who, unencumbered by the boundaries of geography, become at once everything and nothing, swearing allegiance to only the sun and the stars; who simply are.

Via  REORIENT

Pop Goes the East

Eric Parnes on Pop Culture, Being Iranian-American, and the 15th Islamic Arts Festival

by Joobin Bekhrad, REORIENT

Currently exhibiting in Sharjah is the 15^th Edition of the long-running Islamic Arts Festival. Featuring over 1,700 works of art from a variety of mediums, including painting, installation, and video art, and showcasing pieces from 45 local and international exhibitions from 18 countries, the festival is among the most prominent of its kind in the Middle East.

Over the holidays, I chatted with the festival’s headlining artist, Eric Parnes, about the exhibition, his artistic journey, and the concept of ‘Islamic Art’, among other things. 

What themes and ideas were most prominent in the festival?

This was the first year I was actually approached by Sharjah’s Art Directorate of the Department of Culture and Information – the Islamic Arts Festival’s designated coordinators – and asked to participate through a solo show featuring my work, so I don’t have any previous experience with the Festival to accurately assess exactly how the 15th Edition differs from the previous ones. However, at this year’s private inauguration event (which took place on December 12), the Ruler of Sharjah – His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi – reiterated the ideals for the program to be a global pioneer in its comprehensive embrace of, and showcase of, authentic examples of Islamic Art from different periods and regions, wherever they happen to originate from.

The 15th Edition of the Islamic Arts Festival’s promoters also expressed that this year’s production aimed to offer a balanced presentation of ‘classic art’ based on traditional foundations, along with ‘contemporary-like’ [sic] art that will offer fresh concepts, but that are held to the standards of what they believe to be ‘Islamic Art’. I intentionally quoted the phrase ‘contemporary-like’ from the Festival’s official press release simply to demonstrate the underlying hesitations that permeate all modern-day considerations when Islamic Art is poised to be reintroduced in the languages of contemporary art.

Ultimately, if applied correctly, contemporary Islamic Art should be created in a thoughtful way that is truly meaningful to our present human condition. It shouldn’t just simply utilise ‘innovative modern techniques and mediums ruled by digital technology’ [sic].

I think this has probably been the primary challenge for the Festival this year, or for anyone working with new voices in Islamic Art being introduced anywhere today. At this Festival, there was even an official presentation of a special seminar entitled The Versatile Compositions of Islamic Arts, which brought together various scholars, who specifically discussed how contemporary art has surfaced in Islamic Art projects within the past twenty years, amongst other subjects that needed to be addressed when reassessing the question, what exactly is ‘Islamic Art’ now?

So, what exactly is Islamic Art?

Good question. Based on the simplicity of the term ‘Islamic Art’, it would seem quite simple to describe, but it is in fact quite complex. The technical definition of Islamic Art comprises a time period from the advent of Islam to modern times, roughly over a span of 1,400 years. I feel it’s best to say that the term can simply be used to describe artwork that was adapted, created, and refined within the geographical boundaries of the Middle East and the Islamic-influenced world.

Babak Kazemi – Untitled (From the ‘Suggested Package’ series) – Courtesy Homa Art Gallery and REORIENT

As the headlining artist, you have a few works on display – can you tell us a bit about them?

Indeed! The one-man exhibition that I was invited to produce was the show selected to open this year’s Festival in its schedule of events. I was actually given very little advance notice and time to prepare, when the coordinators suddenly initiated the dialogue and requested my immediate participation.

I would much rather have preferred to have, say, close to maybe even a year of advance notice so I could have sufficient time for my own personal creative process – as well as time to figure out the technical needs to satisfactorily bring forth the concept in an aesthetically pleasing way – and then present a series of artworks that together explored one particular theme; and the theme of what is, or could be, Contemporary Islamic Art, is one that is very interesting and multilayered, and can give birth to quite a handful of different conceptual series.

With the little time that I was given, I gathered a selection of various pieces that all fall within the category of what I must insist on calling ‘trademarked’ Neo-Orientalism™ – if you know the art theory I work with, you know why – and that all still nonetheless explore what we know as ‘traditional’ Islamic arts in different ways. For instance, the exhibition’s canvases featuring portrayals of classic academic Orientalism, yet incorporating various high-end fashion designer symbols, or the large-format photographic prints of henna hands featuring brand name logos such as that of Gucci, for example, all address the challenges that contemporary Islam faces with the global advance of consumer culture.

Which works (aside from your own, of course!) do you find most interesting? Are there any artists in particular we should be keeping an eye on?

When I come across artworks that I find thoughtful and/or aesthetically refreshing, my mind immerses itself into experiencing the piece itself and, lost in that imaginative world, I unfortunately thus forget to memorize the name(s) of the artist(s) behind the work! It’s the produced work that catches my attention and keeps me fixed under its spell, not the fact it was made by someone famous, or, say, a person with an interesting face. But I’ll still try to answer this question as best as my memory serves me!

Soody Sharifi – B Film Set – Courtesy Galerie Kashya Hildebrand and REORIENT

I am definitely compelled to mention Soody Sharifi, a US-based émigré artist of Iranian descent, who has been actively producing work for almost a third of a century. Her works are informed by her lives and experiences in both countries, and especially interesting is her fascination with 15^th – 16th Century Persian miniatures, which she brings up-to-date by inserting contemporary characters through the technique of collage. She is a master of the art of miniatures, and pays genuine attention to detail.

Another artist of Iranian background, Babak Kazemi, focused primarily on a southern Iranian city heavily affected by the Iran-Iraq war, Ahvaz. Babak’s surreal visions of this city reportedly come from his childhood memories of the region, and also contain references to the power and influence of oil in Iran’s sociopolitical culture. References to Mickey Mouse and other Western symbols of Americana are also interestingly placed in his work, giving another dimension to the story underneath the surface of his artworks.

As well, Azerbaijan-born artist Rashid Alakbarov has a visually arresting technique he is developing, in which he uses a clever arrangement of wooden planks and other such objects that somehow project intangible works that come to life through a play of shadows and lights. Also, French designer and artist Jonathan Bréchignac’s revisiting of the traditional Muslim prayer rug – a life-size replica made of paper, painstakingly drawn to absolutely insane intricacy exclusively with black ballpoint pens – is a visual testament to human patience and dedication. It reportedly took him over a year to scribble every little intricate detail of the paper prayer rug I saw here at the festival.

I have to admit, I also took great interest in the festival’s nod to the past with its special exhibition of rare Egyptian calligraphy templates, tools that were used by ancestors of this generation to transfer Arabic writings to stone walls or objects. It was quite a marvel to see this archaic invention, a type of early stencil.

Aside from coming from Muslim nations, do you feel there are any other elements bringing all the artists in the festival together?

Actually, including myself, quite a few of the artists featured at this edition of the Festival do not reside in Muslim nations, such as Jonathan. There are also those from British, American, and Indian countries.

Returning to what we spoke about earlier, the Islamic Arts Festival makes a laudable attempt to explore both old and new appearances of ‘Islamic’ Art, which is a complicated label, as it heads into the murky area of prohibitions of certain graven images, and also is broad enough to include the arts related to Islamic traditions, such as calligraphy, ceremonial carpets and rugs, wardrobe fashions, jewelry, and other such domains.

The Festival boasts to have brought together over 1,700 works of art from eighteen counties. It’s quite an effort!

There’s recently been a surge of interest in the art world in works from Turkey and Azerbaijan. What can you say about the Turkish and Azerbaijani works being featured at the festival?

Indeed, there were a number of artists from those countries besides Rashad Alakbarov. I think, from an ‘art industry’ standpoint, in the immediate years to come, we’re going to see a lot more attention paid to the developing contemporary art markets of Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as other formerly overlooked art worlds.

Rashad Alakbarov – East – Courtesy REORIENT

As opposed to the majority of artists who hail from Muslim countries, you were born and raised in the States, and are currently based there. How does it feel now to be headlining an Islamic arts festival in Sharjah, just a stone’s throw away (OK, maybe a bit further than that!) from Iran, your ancestral homeland?

Hah. Answering that question would probably unleash a never-ending cornucopia of self-analysis and the intangible concept of one’s identity. The recent surge of interest in my work, amongst them the personal invitation to this Islamic Arts Festival, in the countries and regions of my ancestors has definitely affected me as an artist as well as on a deeply personal level. It’s still being processed, because I do see the two worlds from both ends – from the East, and from the West. I can be found somewhere in there.

When I look at the modern-day countries of the Middle East, I also think back to of what was before – say, before Iran was even Iran, and when it was known as the centre of the Persian Empire; or, likewise, ancient Mesopotamia. There’s been so much modernisation and commercialisation in these lands, and it’s so visible everywhere how people are influenced by pop culture and corporate infiltration – it’s simply a part of everyday life. One might not even notice it. I do.

In addition to headlining the festival, you’ve also completed a residency in Doha – what other Middle Eastern escapades await, Eric?

Indeed, I’ve suddenly experienced a whirlwind of activity with my artworks in these regions, and more projects are actually in development as we speak. I don’t have any announcements to make as of yet, but there are quite a few to come, I believe. There are a lot of opportunities here, and I need to filter and prioritise them. There’s an old Persian expression: don’t pick up two watermelons with one hand. Hmm, maybe I can pick up two watermelons with one hand – I’ve never tried!

Eric’s works are currently on display at the Maraya Art Center, above the Barjeel Art Foundation. The Islamic Arts Festival runs through January 12, 2013.

Via REORIENT

The Familiar Transformed With the Unexpected

by Susanne Fowler, NYTimes

The manipulation and vulnerability of images are the central themes in “Light From the Middle East,” a thoughtful and layered photography exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum through April 7.

Focusing on the inventive ways that artists use images to tell stories, the show also documents the challenges that have unfolded — and continue to make headlines — in the region, from the now iconic scenes captured by Abbas of the Iranian revolution in the 1970s to Nermine Hammam’s candy-colored and digitally altered shots of Egyptian soldiers in Tahrir Square in 2011. 

The curator, Marta Weiss, has divided 95 works from the V&A and the British Museum collections, plus acquisitions using an Art Fund grant, into three categories — recording, reframing and resisting — using pictures of historic events, photographs of other photographs and photographs that reflect how the medium is used by societies. Thirty-one artists from 13 countries are represented. 

“We all know that photographs can be manipulated and that we can’t really trust them,” the curator said, “and yet there’s also something very instinctive about relying on a photograph and that’s something a lot of these artists are engaging with.” 

During a private tour of the exhibition, Ms. Weiss said the works included “references to studio portraits, to postcards, to propaganda images, to news photography and to the fact that a photograph is a vulnerable object.” 

The first section — recording — “brings together photographs that are using photography in the most kind of direct way possible,” Ms. Weiss said. “We think of it as factual, we think of it as authoritative. This exhibition certainly explores in lots of ways the reliability of photography.” 

The opening images from Tehran of powerful ayatollahs, executed generals, and rioters burning a portrait of the shah are by Abbas, based in Paris and part of the Magnum cooperative. He photographed the Iranian revolution from 1978 to 1980, and later focused on the resurgence of Islam throughout the world. 

Another example of recording is the “Mothers of Martyrs” series from 2006 by Newsha Tavakolian, a self-taught photographer who worked early in her career for a women’s daily newspaper in Iran. 

These pictures of elderly women holding ornately framed photos of sons killed during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s show “one of the many roles a photograph can play in society,” Ms. Weiss said, “that it’s an object of memorialization, but also is an object, a thing to be held in your hands.” 

The second section — reframing — is about updating references to older photographs. 

Shadi Ghadirian, who was born in Tehran in 1974, restages 19th-century portrait photography but updates it by adding contemporary props like a can of Pepsi, a radio, or sunglasses. 

“She’s kind of recreating them in her studio,” Ms. Weiss said. “She had somebody paint the backdrop for her and she dresses these women in kind of approximations of clothing that were the fashion in the period that she’s imitating. You also notice that they’ve got very heavy eyebrows, which was the fashion in 19th-century Iran.” 

“What’s interesting about them, though, is that the photographs these are based on, also showed women posing with very modern, very Western objects, like an ornate clock, or a piano or even a bicycle,” Ms. Weiss said. “So actually these photographs aren’t just about creating that frisson, or tension, between historic and super modern, which is jarring and ironic and amusing, but it’s also about how actually 150 years ago, women in Iran perhaps had more freedoms than they do now.”

Using a broad geographic definition of the Middle East spanning from North Africa to Central Asia, Ms. Weiss said she saw the exhibition as an opportunity to enlighten. 

“Many members of the public who come to see the exhibition are probably going to walk in with a lot of ideas in their head already of what Middle Eastern photography might look like,” she said. “We see the Middle East all the time on our screens and in the newspaper and so on but here’s the chance to look at the Middle East from the perspective of people from the region dealing with their own local concerns.” 

One unexpected and impressive aspect of the exhibition is the number of women photographers represented. 

“About half of the artists are women, actually, and it was not on purpose,” the curator said, “but I do think that photography, compared to other art forms, has a tradition of being something that’s more accessible to women than, you know, back in the 19th century where you needed to go study art at an academy, and draw from the nude and so on. That was not something that was very accessible for women. But in the early days, photography was something you could learn how to do in a kind of more genteel way, as you might learn to do watercolors or embroidery, or even something ladylike like botany that’s sort of scientific but also feminine.” 

Many of the images on display, however, are hardly ladylike. “Some of them are pretty tough,” Ms. Weiss said. 

In the final section — resisting — she has gathered works that “are resisting photography itself in some way or another; they’re resisting the authority of the photograph.” 

“Faces are blanked out or negatives are burned,” she explained. “They’re not allowing the photograph to kind of do what we think photographs are good at, or they’re drawing attention to the fact that photographs are subject to censorship.” 

The Iranian artist Sadegh Tirafkan’s digital print “Human Tapestry,” shows a kind of Persian carpet made up of I.D. photos. “The whole point of an identity portrait,” Ms. Weiss said, “is that it tells you, gives you information, about an individual. But here it becomes nothing more than a little pixel to help form a pattern. It’s kind of denying what the photograph seems to have to offer.” 

In “Despair,” a 2003 digital print, the Turkish artist Sukran Moral takes on the issue of immigration, showing an overcrowded boatload of men risking their lives to seek a better life. The black-and-white image is punctuated by her addition of colorful nightingales on their shoulders, representing the men’s hopes and dreams. 

“It’s a photographic print that has definitely been digitally altered,” Ms. Weiss said, “but it originates with photographic imagery and was printed as a photograph. There’s a lot of mixing of media throughout the show.” 

Perhaps none more colorfully or jarringly so than works by Ms. Hammam, the Egyptian artist who was in Cairo in January 2011. 

“Hers were the only works that I acquired that related to the most recent upheavals in the region,” the curator said. “Hammam was struck, when the soldiers showed up, by how vulnerable these young boys seemed to her and how they wanted to be anywhere but there. 

“So she put them into these fantasy settings, some of which were based on her own collection of vintage postcards. Very far removed from Cairo.” 

One piece, “Spring,” shows men in a tank with a background of Japanese cherry blossoms and what might be Mount Fuji. Another, “The Break,” shows soldiers having a snack in a field of flowers. 

“The suggestion is that the way that the world looked upon the events of Tahrir Square was a kind of form of tourism,” Ms. Weiss said, “where everybody kind of looked at it the way a tourist would and took away something from it, without fully understanding it. 

“And of course it kind of forms a kind of counterpoint to Abbas’s photographs of the Iranian revolution. Very different type of photography; a very different type of revolution.” 

Via NYTimes

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