FridayJanuary 13, 2012� e x h i b i t i o n e x h i b i t i o nFriday

January 13, 2012 �

tammam Azam has a big col-lection of pieces of fabric that he has found on the streets, in people’s homes, in shops and in other places. the Syrian artist uses these

fragments in his work, where they appear as laundry hanging on clotheslines strung across his canvases. the tiny pieces of fab-ric are glued to the canvas or attached to ropes with clothes pegs and painted over to create colourful, mixed-media artworks.

interestingly, Azam’s Laundry Series was inspired by watching his 2-year-old daugh-ter playing with the clothes and pegs on the clothesline to create different arrange-ments. over the past five years, the series has evolved from monochrome paintings to colourful installations. in his first solo exhibition in Dubai, titled Dirty Laundry, Azam is showcasing his latest experiments in the Laundry Series. these include paint-ings, collages and installations that speak about his personal journey from the small village of Sweida to the bustling city of Damascus and comment on the recent up-heavals in the region and the present situa-tion in his own country.

“every piece of fabric in my artworks be-longs to somebody and has a story. it rep-resents memories. For those, who, like me, have moved far away from their hometown, these fabrics symbolise their memories of home and the stories they left behind,” Azam says.

on a personal level, the glue and pegs that bind the fabrics to the rope in his can-vases are a symbolic depiction of how the artist’s own memories of home keep him connected to the place and to the people he grew up with. on another level, the pieces strung together on a rope speak about the connections that exist between human be-ings, the shared destinies that bind peo-ple together and their collective power to change their circumstances.

When Azam moved from his village to Damascus, he was overwhelmed by the crowds and the hustle and bustle of the

city. he conveys this experience through a multitude of fabrics of different colours crowded together on his canvases. but the splashes of red and the holes he has burnt in some of these canvases change the nar-rative to speak about the throngs of pro-testers and the violence he has seen in the city in recent times.

the artist has always used a black-and-white palette because it reflects the volcan-ic ash, which is a predominant feature of the landscape in his village. but in his latest work, these colours in a set of collages and paintings signify the fading of memories and of life itself. the barely visible fabrics in the collages indicate a zone between

presence and absence. but in the paint-ings, the laundry and clotheslines appear like ghostly patches, mourning the loss of the people, memories and stories that have been destroyed.

the metallic works in this series are a continuation of Azam’s exploration of the city. here, the laundry on his canvases is drenched in silver, gold and other metallic hues. “the city is so different from my vil-lage. i began to use metallic shades when i moved to Damascus, because i wanted to recreate the dull lustre of the buildings, the cars and the factories. i wanted to infuse my work with a sense of the industrial en-vironment, the modern architecture and the beauty and anarchy of the crowds, traf-fic and chaos in the city. My latest work combines the concepts behind my earlier Metallica Series and the Laundry Series, with the folds of the fabrics, the pegs and the ropes imparting a depth and a sense of movement,” Azam says.

his box-shaped installations further comment on life in the city, where people lead isolated lives with little interaction with their neighbours. here, the laundry is hanging from ropes strung across the box-es, with a silk-screen print of a cityscape in the background. “these were inspired by the view of the city from the window of my tiny apartment,” the artist says.

Azam has recently moved to Dubai and has added an installation to this show that speaks about this change in his life and conveys the essence of the show’s theme. titled 7kg. News, the piece is a washing machine, stuffed with local newspapers covered with streaks of red paint. the ma-chine is plastered with cuttings from local newspaper reports about the Arab Spring. the soap compartment is also painted red and lies open. this evocative piece speaks about the barrage of news available in Du-bai, the power of a free media, the need to clean up the socio-political environment in the region, the violent protests seeking to do so and the lack of closure for those who risked everything for change.

Dirty Laundry will run at Ayyam Gallery, DIFC until January 26.

Patchwork commentary

The creations of Syrian artist Tammam Azam reveal various facets of life in the city

By Jyoti Kalsi Special to Weekend Review

Scraps of fabric the artist found on streets, in shops and people’s homes appear as laundry hanging on clotheslines strung across his canvases. Over the past five years, the series has evolved from monochrome paintings to colourful installations

Custom-made creationsThe varied works of five artists from Tunisia, Morocco, Iran and Egypt reflect

their ideas about tradition and modernity, old and new, self and other

there are many artists in this region who are pushing the boundaries of contempo-rary Arab and iranian art through a unique vocabu-lary that combines local

artistic traditions and modern Western practices. An exhibition titled The Dreamer and the Poet brings together five such art-ists from tunisia, Morocco, iran and egypt. the artworks on display offer insight into the lives and the viewpoints of the individ-ual artists and tell stories about their world in a language that is universal.

the dreamer in the title of this show re-fers to Asal Falah. the young iranian artist takes viewers into the world of her dreams and imagination through the haunting, metaphysical drawings from her My World series. her detailed drawings, done with a black pen on a white board, are filled with traditional iranian symbols, such as birds, flowers, insects, fish, snakes, butterflies emerging from cocoons and people bound by strings. they reveal her fears, aspira-tions and thoughts regarding relationships, personal freedom and other issues.

“My aim with this collection was to cre-ate a visual autobiography in an environ-ment that travels from life’s realities to an imaginary world. i have been working on this series for ten years, and it has been quite a therapeutic process, because i have honestly expressed my feelings about eve-rything that concerns me in real life. My simple palette provides a sense of tranquil-lity, allowing me to express my sorrows and loneliness in a virtual space that con-

nects me with my viewers and helps fill the emptiness in my life,” Falah says.

“i believe that escaping from reality through art can be a constructive and posi-tive force that can heal and provide a sense of freedom. And i hope that my work will enable my viewers too to escape from the harsh realities of their lives and fly with me to an inner world of unlimited dreams,” she adds.

the poet in this show is Abdullah Akar. the tunisian calligrapher moved to Paris in the late 1960s, and his work is inspired by Arabic and Western poetry. Akar is known for his experiments with diverse art forms and materials such as textiles, wood and iron. his work in this show combines the poems of Kahlil Gibran and Mahmoud Darwish with flourishes of bright colours and interesting textures to offer a contem-porary take on traditional calligraphy.

“My work demonstrates that while be-ing faithful to tradition, an artist can also be fearless in incorporating new trends. i

have incorporated graffiti, sculpture and photography in my paintings because i want to present a traditional art form with a modern context and vision. i want to debunk the myth that the ancient art of Arabic calligraphy is a fossilised craft. My work leads viewers from the old to the new, from the distant past to the present, prov-ing that this art form remains traditional but ‘alive’,” Akar says.

Moroccan artist Lalla essaydi’s work also offers an interesting new twist on tradi-tion. her photographic series, The Night of the Henna, is inspired by traditional Mo-roccan wedding customs and Arabic cal-ligraphy. the title refers to the elaborate “women only” ceremony on the eve of the marriage, when the bride’s hands and feet are adorned with intricate henna patterns. the pictures, however, do not feature any brides. essaydi has instead used objects that are customary wedding gifts, such as flowers, eggs, candles and sugar, to repre-sent the bride.

essaydi’s photographs feature piles of eggshells, floral bouquets, lumps of sugar and burning candles — all covered with henna patterns. the images of these stark white objects decorated with henna are beautiful and thought-provoking. Although the artist remains behind the camera, these photographs present an intimate portrait of her. in fact, the henna patterns are actually excerpts from the artist’s personal journal, documenting her experiences and express-ing her thoughts on conventional distinc-tions between women and men, public and private, past and present, self and other, and memory and imagination.

“traditionally, henna designs are applied by and on women during significant rites of passage and times of celebration. And calligraphy was traditionally taught only to men. by writing with henna, i am em-bracing my cultural heritage and its gender roles. Yet, as a self-taught calligrapher i am also exercising my freedom here. these contradictions in my work are deliberate because i want to break stereotypes and present myself through multiple lenses — as an artist, an Arab, an African, a tradition-alist, a liberal and a Muslim,” she says.

iranian artist hussain Fasih’s colourful and detailed illustrations of 13th-century Persian poetry, and egyptian artist Amr Fekry’s meditative black-and-white photo-graphs from his Whirling Dervishes collec-tion, are also part of this interesting mosaic of contemporary Arab and iranian art.

Jyoti Kalsi is an art enthusiast based in Dubai.

The Dreamer and the Poet will run at Pro Art Gallery’s new space in Sunset Mall on Jumeirah Beach Road until January 20.

By Jyoti Kalsi Special to Weekend Review

A drawing by Asal Falah, black pen on cardboard Photographs from Lalla Essaydi’s ‘The Night of the Henna’ series

An illustration by Hussain Fasih, mixed media on canson paper

‘Liberte’, by Abdullah Akar, mixed media on canvas