ARA-B-LESS? : An Interview With Riffy Arts Collective

Meriem Bennani; the New York-based artist who was recently featured in the New York Times is one of the selected artists by Riffy Ahmed and Sarah El Hamed for the ARA-B-LESS? project at the Saatchi Gallery.  Our guest blogger Aimee Dawson speaks with Riffy to learn more about the project.

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Project Poster

How did you conceive the title ARA-B-LESS ?

The project title ‘ARA-B-LESS ?’ is a neologism born of a play on the word ‘Arabness’ (Arabism). Two designs hint at the meaning behind “ARA-B-LESS ?” –  the first emphasising ‘BLESS’ suggests that Arab identity is a blessing, while the second emphasises “LESS’, the ways in which what it means to be Arab have evolved over time, perhaps losing something along the way. ‘ARA-B-LESS?’, as a question, also focuses on whether we, the artists, consider ourselves to be more or less Arab for having been born and brought up in the West, albeit by parents from Arab countries.

Can you describe the show a little? What does the performance description mean by three different ‘landscapes’?

The show integrates live performance art with video, sculpture and installation work. Operating in the interstices between reality and fiction and inspired by Grayson Perry’s Map of an Englishman, 2004, ARA-B-LESS? invites the audience to embark on a journey through three conceptually cohesive spaces each posing a unique challenge to current codes of conduct as well as questioning the existence of multifarious stereotypes and framing devices. The result is an extensive yet playful investigation of the ways in which identity is constructed as well as the ways in which it might be deconstructed and reconstructed in the realm of the hyper-real.

How do you think Arab women are perceived and represented? Are you looking at it from a ‘Western’ gaze or Middle Eastern/Arab or…?

The short answer is both from a Western and a Middle Eastern/Arab gaze, there is no limit to the ways in which women’s identity might be interrogated in the work of each artist – the whole point is to explore and ask questions. ARA-B-LESS ?, designed in broad terms to explore notions of Arabness and more specifically to explore the representation of women in these different cultures, is an essentially collaborative project. The result is a series of ongoing conversations between artist-curators Riffy Ahmed and Sarah El Hamed. Together, they have selected works by artists who complement, counter, and complicate their thinking about the representation of identity.

How is the work interactive? What can people expect?

There will be three performances (each 10 minutes in length) by Ahmed and El Hamed (visitors will be informed and directed by staff before each is about to start) as well as a durational performance inspired by Hassan Hajjaj’s photographic portraits. The subject of this performance, who will pose throughout the evening in a Hajjaj constructed environment, will also wear clothes designed by the artist.

Visitors to Shadi Al Zaqzouq’s work will also be able to participate by purchasing or simply trying on his eccentric creations – hijabs adorned by colourful variations on the Liberty Spike Mohawk. There will also be live music throughout the evening courtesy of Algerian singer and guitarist, Nedjim Bouizzoul.

The ARA-B-LESS? performance takes place on Wednesday 4 November, 7pm at Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s Square.

To book tickets click here.

Event Review: The Image Is Witness

The Image is Witness © Wafaa Samir

The first biennial of contemporary photography from the Arab region will open in Paris next month, sponsored by the Institut du Monde Arabe and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie.  Gabriel Bauret, the biennial curator, was joined in a panel discussion by Vali Mahlouji, an Iranian London-based curator and critic, and Karin Adrian von Roques, a German curator with international experience in contemporary Arab and Iranian art.

The panel explored their individual awakenings to the development of a vibrant art scene in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, and the issues they believe to have stunted the international appreciation of these artists, perhaps most interestingly, the influence of the market in defining trends.  Distinctions were drawn (but unfortunately not fully examined) between Arab and Iranian artistic output, and many questions asked about the boundaries within which ‘Arab’ can be considered a fulfilling definition for art emerging from the region.  We find these questions repeatedly posed about how to group artists working within and beyond this vast territory, often to satisfy a naïve Western gaze, and this panel was an important fixture in the Nour Festival calendar to further unpick the issues with this classification.

Vali Mahlouji was the highlight of the discussion, giving an engaging presentation on his Archaeology of the Final Decade project, a multidisciplinary endeavour that sits on the line of curation and archive to upend the notion of the photographic image as a reliable ‘witness’.  Using the photographs of Kaveh Golestan’s ‘Prostitute’ series as a case study upon which to open an examination of how the historical, socio-political and even architectural narratives of a city – in this case, Tehran – and its population can be redrawn and re-politicised.

The Image Is Witness serves to bring to international attention the current surge of interest in this field of contemporary art, and we encourage any visitors to Paris in November to make a visit to the biennial itself.

This review was written by Siobhán Forshaw; the curator of a collection of Islamic and Modern Arab art based in London. She writes independently on art and culture, mainly from the Middle East and North Africa region.

Arwa Abouon: An Artist Who Explores Bicultural Identity

Arwa Abouon, Untitled: Generation Series (Mother and Daughter), 2004, digital print, 44 x 80”

Arwa Abouon (b. 1982, Tripoli, Libya) emigrated to Quebec, Canada with her family at a young age and graduated with distinction from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in 2007.  As a visual artist straddling two vastly different cultures, her work addresses important issues such as identity, duality and spirituality, yet is approached with a particular openness and sense of humour.

Abouon’s narrative is largely autobiographical in nature, with the subjects of her portraits often being her immediate family and herself, spanning across generations and genders.

Her work is informed by the increasing “visibility of Islam” in the West and the socio-political ramifications of living and growing-up in a post-9/11 world.

In a conversation with Valerie Behiery, historian of Islamic art, Abouon discussed the challenges she had identifying with the land that is her home but not her birthplace:

First of all I am Muslim. When I describe myself, I put it in order: Muslim, Libyan, Canadian. Here I’m Libyan, but when I go to Libya, I’m Canadian.

Arwa Abouon, ‘I’m Sorry/ I Forgive You’ (diptych), 2012, digital print, 30 x 40”. Image courtesy the artist.

Abouon’s experience in a bicultural setting offers her a unique perspective on contemporary global society.  According to the Artist’s Statement found on Abouon’s website, this complex mixture of factors makes for very fertile ground:

The themes addressed in my work stem directly from my life experience as a female artist living and working between cultures, and yet the aim is to show how a single person’s ‘double vision’ can produce images that possess much wider social effects by collapsing racial, cultural and religious borders.

Abouon’s photography, video, design and installations regularly incorporate the three pillars of traditional Islamic design: symmetry, repetition and rhythm while largely avoiding themes that frequently dog diaspora artists: marginalisation and discrimination. As a “self-identifying practising Muslim,” the artist seeks to introduce and examine her religious roots, while elevating Islam to a level beyond the hijab and politics.

My ultimate aim is to sculpt a finer appreciation of the Islamic culture by shifting the focus from political issues to a poetic celebration of the faith’s foundations.

Abouon’s first solo show in the UK, Birthmark Theory, is in conjunction with the Nour Festival of Arts and in partnership with Noon Arts. The exhibition held at londonprintstudio is considered a retrospective of the last ten years of her work and includes ‘Mirror Mirror/Allah Allah,’ ‘I’m Sorry/I Forgive You’ and the ‘Abouon Family,’ among others.

Arwa Abouon, ‘Mirror Mirror/ Allah Allah’ (diptych), 2012, digital print, 40 x 40”

The exhibition opened on 20 October 2015. According to curator Najlaa Elageli, the retrospective to date has been very well received:

We are delighted to have artist Arwa Abouon with us for a few days, coming all the way from Montreal, Canada. It has been an incredible feat that could not have happened without the support of the Nour Festival and the londonprintstudio. More wonderful is the fact that the local North African and Muslim communities have been engaging with the artwork and asking lots of questions.

Birthmark Theory runs at the londonprintstudio through 7 November 2015.  This profile was written by Lisa Pollman, a freelance writer who connects Asian and Middle Eastern artists to the world.

The Guardians: Exhibition Review

The Guardians. Saeed Adam Omar (Late Sheikh of the Guardians) by Adel Quraishi. Courtesy the artist & The Park Gallery, London

As his contribution to the Nour Festival, Saudi Arabian portrait photographer Adel Quraishi has focused on what must be one of the most affecting groups available: the handful of surviving Guardians of the Prophet’s burial chamber at Medina. Prophet Mohammed lived, died and is buried there, and every Muslim aims to visit the site at least once. Since the Ottoman Empire, the keys to this holy site have been kept by eunuchs – originally from Abyssinia, later wider in origin.   They are eunuchs who entered the role long ago, and are now at least 80 years old – one is said to be 110, which would fit with research suggesting that reduced testosterone gives eunuchs increased life expectancy. Nonetheless, three of the eight pictured in 2014 have died since the photographs – the only ones ever permitted – were taken, and only three remain fit to carry out their full duties. The Guardians are eunuchs, not because they have access to women’s accommodation, but for the spiritual aspect of a faith that is undistracted by sexual desire and uninfected by ritual impurity. They are revered as mediators who cross boundaries, and there’s also a sense in which time is suspended for them, as they have never gone through the changes of adolescence. That state matches the suspension of time said to occur in the well-preserved state of the Prophet’s body.

No new Guardians are being taken on, so where once there were hundreds responsible for all aspects of running the mosque complex, the remaining few spend their days in a small room connected to the burial chamber itself. They pray, clean the floor with rosewater and look after the set of keys which must be used in a closely-guarded sequence to access the chamber. Even Quraishi was not allowed to photograph the keys, but he was able to take an image of the chamber through which a constant stream of pilgrims pass: we see the architectural and decorative detail, but a long exposure time converts the worshippers to abstract marks passing through. Quraishi’s project, then, makes the most of the photograph as record: to look at the eight faces ranged – life sized or somewhat larger – around the ideally suited dimensions of Leighton House’s contemporary exhibition gallery is to look at the only pictures ever taken of an 800 year tradition which is set to disappear.

The Guardians. Ahmed Ali Yaseen by Adel Quraishi. Courtesy the artist & The Park Gallery, London

The Guardians. Ali Bodaya Ibrahim by Adel Quraishi. Courtesy the artist & The Park Gallery, London

So how do the eight portraits operate as images?  The late Sheikh (or Chief) among them, Saad Adam Omar, and his successor, Nouri Mohammed Ahmed Ali, look to have a more assertive presence than the other six, among whom there is less sense of personality. These are pious and self-effacing men, who have spent at least the past 60 years in ritualised routine. Quraishi describes them as humble and balanced men who put him at ease. They come across as dignified, but subordinate to their roles. Quraishi could have emphasised this by employing a serial, standardised set-up in the manner of the Bechers. However, though the octet are all shown against a plain white background (as photographed in their small and little-used office) and though all prints are an imposing 191 x 135cm (commensurate with important subjects), there is considerable variation.  The scale at which the Guardians are shown, the degrees of crop, and their poses all vary.  So do their clothes: they wear state dress, but have no uniform as such, nor is there any indication of rank: they are given a new robe each year, and choose which one to wear and with what. All wear a green belt, visible in several photographs and characteristic of Medina (whereas their equivalents in Mecca wear red belts). Otherwise, the colours are restrained: browns, golds, whites.

The Guardians. Ahmed Masibo Saleh by Adel Quraishi. Courtesy the artist & The Park Gallery, London

The portraits, then, are more varied than might be expected, but only to set you wondering: is that an indicator of the men’s underlying variation, or the extent of it?  The effect might be contrasted with Thomas Ruff’s passport-style photographs, which pretend to impose uniformity on a patently disparate group; or with August Sander’s People of the 20th Century, which revolves around the range of jobs performed. Overall, The Guardians is a compelling representation of the totality of a rare group, and Leighton House Museum, with its Arab Hall lined with an extensive collection of Islamic tiles, is an appropriate and atmospheric location for it. That the portraits were taken at all made that impact likely; and though Quraishi could undoubtedly have carried the project out differently, the way he has done so enhances the effect.  

This review was written by freelance writer and art curator Paul Carey-Kent who regularly contributes to The Art Newspaper, Frieze, FAD Art News and Photomonitor among others.