Araam – Breathing Space

Araam – Breathing Space
Zarah Hussain & Halima Cassell at the Mid Pennine Gallery

This is the first exhibition I have seen since being back in the UK but the themes and content very much connect to some of the areas of interest I was able to explore in the UAE. Both artists in this show are British with roots in Pakistan and both consider aspects of this identity in their work. However, my primary interest in both of these artists is how each contemporises the ancient and complex art of geometry.

I am familiar with Zarah Hussain’s previous work where watercolours or acrylics were used predominantly as mediums for classical geometric reproduction. This show is very different. It consists of six, large oil on gesso panels with a seventh in progress in the gallery itself. Two small multi-sided pieces are redolent of her earlier work in that they conform to classical geometric discipline and aesthetics but all the others contain varying degrees of diversion. The work was all completed this year and each piece is displayed in the order it was created. This chronological sequence essentially allows the viewer to follow Hussain’s unfolding argument with geometric orthodoxy.

After the two small pieces comes the most obviously breakaway piece in which elements of each geometric motif are drifting away from their central core. This gives a palpable sense of disintegration and expansion. The next panel seems to contain the essential argument in itself as if some reassembling was necessary after the dilution in the previous panel. However, while many of the individual geometries are more robust, the very act of placing them in non-tessellated and sometimes overlapping positions is another subversion of traditional form.

The next panel is circular and again contains overlapping motifs, but this time they are very mixed. Some are basic and almost transparent geometric sketches, while others are densely complex both in colour and form. There is a freedom here which suggests that the argument has been resolved but the disparity is slightly disorientating and prompts much closer scrutiny to find an underlying structure holding it all together. However, it is the last piece that makes the biggest visual impact. This final square panel contains 25 identical geometric shapes with a colour code running through each line that seems both ordered and random at the same time. It demands attention and plays visual tricks but perfectly exemplifies the end of a process in which traditional has been meticulously transformed into contemporary. The artist has so mastered and understood the rules of geometry that she is now able to manoeuvre independently within the boundaries that those rules create. It is interesting to compare this development in geometry with the other 'Islamic' art of calligraphy. Hussain has essentially arrived at the kind of conclusion that has for some time, allowed contemporary calligraphers much greater freedom of stylistic interpretation.

Halima Cassell’s work in this show is representative of her wider sculptural practice so does not all directly reference geometric pattern. There are a range of objects in wood, stone and clay including a tall wooden totem evoking pregnancy. Although obviously linked to the subject, the phallic element of the structure dominates and this made it hard to take completely seriously. A number of small clay and smooth stone pieces suggest possibilities or ideas in progress rather than conclusions and this works perfectly in the context of the whole show. Both artists are working in residence at the gallery and there are concept and design sketches on the wall giving a sense of the process before the work reaches its final form.

What I love about Cassell’s work, however, is the incorporation of geometry into 3D sculptural forms and the remarkable way in which she can make clay give the impression of being wood. From a distance it is not apparent that a bowl-like sculpture with internal raised geometric patterns is carved from clay. Similarly a large round piece appears as if it could be made of wood.

Applying a carving technique commonly used on one material to another but with an outcome that fuses both, is a fascinating process in itself. These objects were definitely highlights for me and I also liked the more random pieces that could almost be found objects, especially the jagged chunks of wall with matching holes.

Hussain and Cassell approach the subject of geometry in very different mediums but both interpret their subject to connect across time and culture. Some of Cassell’s objects may appear to be modern and functional, but all they are made to contain is the beauty of their own design. Hussain’s paintings emerge through a contemporary creative prism and delicately reveal a fresh perception of this sublime and complex form.

Zarah Hussain http://www.zarahhussain.co.uk/

Halima Cassell http://www.halimacassell.com/index.php

Mid Pennine Gallery http://www.midpenninearts.org.uk/galleryhome.htm

Was it all a dream??

I have now been back in the UK for over a month and it is rather disturbing that the past 2 years in the UAE seem to have left no trace whatsoever. I have only thought about it twice - once when a plane flew low enough over my garden to read 'Emirates' on its undercarriage and once when I saw the UAE listed in a money transfer office full of Pakistanis in my local high street. If it wasn't for the evidence of this blog I would find it hard to believe that the last two years had actually happened!

Catching up with friends who have had major changes in their lives is a stark reminder that I have been elsewhere. Similarly the fact that we are loving the rain (a pleasure we can't share with anyone else in this country) also points to a semi-detached status. However, any sense of where we have been for all that time is almost completely absent. It's like having a mild form of amnesia.

Perhaps when I start working properly again and especially if I start reviewing some arty stuff that has a UAE connection, my memory may return..... or maybe I just need to find a taxi ....

Home and Dry

It is good to be back and getting wall to wall TV coverage of Glastonbury and Wimbledon was a bonus. The UK weather has been disappointingly glorious since our return but there have been a few showers and storms and all sorts of clouds. It's that constant variation in the sky and the atmosphere that I missed most in the UAE so I am really enjoying it. Our house is fine and just in need of a bit of paint and TLC but the garden was so overgrown it was like a small field. I actually felt a bit guilty getting out there with the shears and wantonly destroying several reclaimed insect habitats but there can be no territorial compromise with flying ants. The long running soap opera that is my family continues and I almost couldn't take the omnibus edition that greeted me on arrival. However, I live far enough away not to have to deal with it on a daily basis so equanimity can be retained!

What is best, however, is the 5th E17 Art Trail. In the first one in 2005 there were about 40 artists but this year there are an amazing 180 different individuals, groups or projects proving that cultural and arts development has not only been happening in the UAE. The last Art Trail I did in 2006 was an installation in a local museum garden and they have agreed to let do a completely different installation in their garden again. This alone would have been a neat transition back to my pre-UAE life but it gets better..... the E17 Art Trail this year has manged to get 3 Arts Council of England Commissions - 2 for new art work and one for an art blog which covers and records the work in this year's Trail. Guess who got the commission for the blog?? OH YES :)

I was worried that it would be difficult to plug my UAE experience back into the UK but within a few weeks of being back I am in a very nice place. As well as being happy with both the conceptual and material aspects of my planned installation, I am also able to get completely immersed in the locality again by using the blogging and writing skills I would not have had without the UAE experience.

It also means I win a bet with spouse about who would be the first to earn some money back in the UK....

So Farewell then UAE ...

Well... this it is.... we depart the People's Great Jumhurriyah of Sharjah today then spend some time in Dubai with friends before disappearing into the grey clouds of British summertime.

It is hard to believe that two years have passed quite so quickly even if time does go faster as you get older (a proven scientific fact). It has been a mixed experience but we end up leaving with a relatively good UAE story. After a disastrous start (due in large part to spouse's crisis-engineering employers) we have now managed to recoup our early Dubai losses. I guess we were just ahead of the curve and had our financial crisis about a year before everybody else. As a consequence we are now well into economic recovery although this is largely thanks to Sharjah and means that we don't have to panic about looking for jobs for a few months. So we will just chill out and settle slowly back into the London house and do very little except the basic manual labour associated with long overdue house and garden maintenance.

I will also be able to think about my own art! The constant pressure to earn money here was just not conducive to artistic output. In two years I produced four average prints, reworked some old paintings and created four towers of trash. Ironically (or perhaps not!) it was the Towers of Trash that gave me two of the highlights of my time here - exhibiting at the Creek Art Fair in Dubai and then at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi. Three of them live on - one is now in Germany, one in Ethiopia and the final one has found a loving home in the Environmental Sciences department of the American University of Sharjah!

Another real highlight was working on the Sharjah Biennale which gave me a lot to think about creatively on so many different levels. I have blatantly stolen ideas about processes, materials, concepts and ways of communicating that I will take back to the UK with me and present as my own! I don’t yet know exactly how this and all my experiences over the past two years will come out in my creative work. However, the best thing is that I go back to the UK knowing I have a rare period ahead of me where I simultaneously have the two key commodities of time AND money! This means that I can sift through it all at leisure in my own space and then just focus on externalisation and production. I have (mostly) enjoyed being a facilitator, promoter and reviewer of other peoples art and culture over the past two years BUT I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to just being an artist for a while again!!

I will keep up this blog especially if I see or do anything that relates to the UAE when I am in London or elsewhere. If I get to Venice before November I'll write about the (Dis)United Arab Emirates Pavilion and will obviously post any new UK Dubai bashing articles on the UAE Community Blog :). I also have no doubt that I will now start hearing stories from Pakistani taxi drivers in London who have cousins in Dubai all of whom I will obviously have met ........

Scraps at Total Arts gallery

As we all know one of the most sublimely beautiful areas in Dubai is Al Quoz - grimy, dusty, mechanical and packed with warehouses, factories, storage depots, wholesale outlets and galleries!

As we all also know there are risks to living in an industrial zone and reports of warehouse fires are frequent. The most damaging one in March last year caused a massive explosion and fire resulting in several casualties, 3 destroyed warehouses and a thick cloud of toxic looking smoke. Luckily none of the galleries were close enough to the site of the fire to be seriously affected and since then it seems that fire safety precautions have been dramatically improved ...... or there's been a blanket ban on reporting fires in Al Quoz :).

This tragedy is the background and inspiration for the current exhibition at Total Arts gallery that has to rate among the most memorable I have seen in my two years here. Total Arts was founded by architect Darius Zandi and artist Shaqayeq Arabi and was the first gallery to set up in Al Quoz way back in 1996. After the fire Zandi and Arabi visited the burnt out warehouse and were so affected by what they saw they began a long process of transporting things from the site back to the gallery.

The result is Scraps, an installation composed entirely of materials, artefacts and incidental objects found at the site with site photos projected against two of the gallery walls. The scale of the installed pieces varies from huge warped sheets of corrugated metal suspended from ceilings and used to create artificial walls, to small and fragile fragments of paper or cloth.

Some pieces stand on plinths like highly original sculptures, most amazingly a collection of hundreds of pairs of metal scissors all melded together by the heat of the fire. A partially collapsed bicycle stands precariously upright surrounded by different piles of objects fused in plastic, metal and wood. There are melted tins, jars, knives, safety pins, toothbrushes, bicycle pumps, a cash register, a sewing machine and many other everyday objects rendered almost unrecognisable by the furnace they emerged from.

Many of the smaller finds have been transformed into installations in their own right. One wall is covered with blackened food trays set with piles of melted forks and spoons and a metal sheet is covered with knife blades. A series of boxes contain a curious mix of objects, scraps of documents, textiles and electrical wires.

The whole thing is a sensory experience crystallised by a soundtrack of muffled explosions and the all pervading odour of burnt metal, wood and plastic. It manages to address several different levels and aspects of its own particular local context as well as referencing wider points of aesthetics and art history - a dual achievement still very rare in exhibitions here.

It is also a unique and moving memorial to those who died.

Scraps runs until end August at Total Arts Gallery, Al Quoz

Ajman-ski and fish

Last week I ticked the Ajman box .... this means that I have managed to visit all 7 Emirates during my stay here.... OK ... so Umm Al Qawain may only have been a trip to Dreamland but it counts!

Ajman was only a fleeting visit for one evening but we packed a lot in. First there was dinner at the Casa Samak almost on the sand at the Coral Beach resort. Unfortunately it was buffet night so the food was rather grim but apparently the normal menu is excellent and as the name suggests fish is a speciality. However I don't really see how it can beat the Al Sheraa fish restaurant in Sharjah which is an absolute treat. I went there with a group of friends after an afternoon at the biennial. There is a menu mostly of fish nobody had ever heard so we ordered a few different kinds which were served whole for everyone to share. They were gorgeous and the shrimp was sublime. If you know what you're doing you can even go and select your own fish. Highly recommended although Coral Beach obviously trumps it on location!

But back to Ajman. After dinner we went for stroll down the corniche which is very lively, full of people (and cruising cars) and real buzz. Then to the huge Ajman Kempinski which is completely over the top and has bizarre rules like not being allowed to go in the sea after sunset even just to paddle! I took off my shoes and made determined moves toward the shore but was stopped by security before the water hit my toes. I loved the geometric parquet in the lobby. This was the first thing I noticed but the next obvious thing was the couple who didn't look like they were married casually waiting for the elevator enroute to a very temporary room rental.

It was another of those great UAE contrasts. From the corniche packed with movement, barbecues and great weekend atmosphere - South Asian bachelors, assorted families and a lot of local families - to the opulence and decadence of the adjacent 5 star. Another lovely anomaly is that the wholesale Al Kahool outlet is right opposite the palace which made me grin. But what was most striking were the Russians. The hotels were full of them and there was even a fur coat shop in the lobby of the Coral Beach resort. Down the main drag there were shop signs in Russian too. There were the usual quota of inebriated Brits who are found anywhere there is an Al Kahool outlet but in Ajmanski they shall be mercilessly crushed by the competition from their Eastern European neighbours....

My taxi driver is also my gynaecologist..

I have got very used to the deliberations of taxi drivers on the childless state of spouse and myself. There seems to be no concept of privacy about family matters which means that I have had the same conversation in about 70% of taxis I took in Dubai and possibly 80% in Sharjah! The drivers are usually, though not always, Pakistani and the conversation is conducted at varying levels of English with bits of Arabic thrown in. After "madam where come from ?" the next question is always:

"you husban’??"

followed by:

"you baby? 1? 2? 3?"

Answering 'no' to the baby question inevitably opens up an insistent line of reproductive enquiry. On establishing the existence of a 'problem' the next question from the driver is invariably:

"you problem? husban' problem?"

.. and so a most sensitive and intimate subject becomes a perfectly normal and acceptable conversation with a total stranger!

Over the past two years I have been told more than once that under Islamic law I can divorce and get a new husband who will “give me baby”. I have also received the phone numbers of “very good doctor” in Pakistan. The funniest one was a driver who asked if my husband worked very hard and then came home and went to sleep. When I said yes, I was earnestly informed that this was “big problem” because "for make baby husban' must wake up".

The most harrowing was a driver who had 7 children in a village near Peshawar. He was so upset by how he perceived the situation that he actually started to cry and said that if his children were here he would give one of them to me.

I only ever got one offer of a more physically direct contribution to my motherhood but I pretended not to understand and didn't give the driver a tip .....

In most cases, especially when language options are limited, the journeys end with an acknowledgement of the powerlessness of humanity and the absolute necessity for trust in the will of god. Allah karim can only ever be the safe conclusion!

These and other experiences and conversations with taxi drivers will be among my strongest memories of the UAE. I have heard stories about the lives and the politics of every part of Pakistan and know which buildings in Dubai are owned by which members of Pakistan's ruling families. I have heard tales of arduous road trips between Abu Dhabi and Sudan or Yemen via Saudi Arabia and across the Red Sea. Drivers like that who have been here many years have taught me a lot about the UAE and how it has changed. Over 18 years one driver had descended from being in the Abu Dhabi Air Force to driving a cab in Sharjah. I heard similar stories from Yemenis and Bahrainis who were in the police force but gradually squeezed out as policy shifted to employing more UAE nationals. Some of these stories are bitter, some reveal fascinating facts about crime and corruption while others leave you suspicious that the driver is omitting a key transgression of his own which resulted in the forced career change!

Living here may have made me redefine my working definition of freedom (i.e. an integrated public transport system!) but its absence gave me access to a whole fleet of social, cultural and political commentators, storytellers and UAE historians. It also provided a lot of surprisingly personal human contact that I would not otherwise have had.

Of course there were the absolute nightmare taxi drivers as well. However, they were a minority and generally consisted of those poor b******s seemingly fresh from the village, who hadn’t been in the taxi for more than a few days and appeared to have had no training, no orientation and certainly no suggestion that listening to a woman with a map might be a good idea……. it's those ones that make freedom seem like an integrated public transport system. By integrated I mean inter-emirate too. I miss being able to lose several hours staring out of train windows at passing landscape while listening to the infinite possibilities of 10,000 MP3 tracks on random .....

Bellissimo..

In relation to a post on April 9th about not being paid I am delighted to say that I checked my bank account today and one of the Italians has coughed up! It was not immediately apparent which one but a little research revealed it was Il Giornale Dell'Architettura. So thank you very much! Better late than never and I am sure it had nothing to do with the earlier blog post and associated comments ....

My four days of the Dubai dream...

This week I am house and cat sitting for a friend who lives in a Dubai dream villa! Each day starts with a majestic descent of the wide marble staircase then padding gently across the huge antique Persian rug in the hall I sweep into the light and spacious kitchen. While the coffee is brewing. I fix breakfast, collect the newspapers by the door and then head through the patio doors for the poolside. After a leisurely breakfast I take a light morning swim, a long and luxurious shower in my own bathroom and only then do I think about turning on the laptop.

The laptop even has its own room overlooking the front garden and in between emails, articles and updating proposals, I watch the birds delicately flitting from tree to tree. I then head out to all the meetings I've arranged over these four days to discuss my new project. The project gets an amazing response from everybody I pitch it to and I get lots of good advice and contacts as well as unconditional offers of support. I also get to see a lot of new exhibitions, every taxi I take has a lovely driver and I don't get stuck in any traffic!

I return to my fabulous villa, write up my notes and then spend an hour or so swimming in the cool, freshwater pool while the overhanging bougainvillea branches drop flowers gently into the water......

In the evenings I catch up with friends I've hardly seen since moving to Sharjah and go to a book launch where I see lots of other people I haven't seen since leaving Dubai. The four days really remind me of what is good about Dubai and what I miss about it but mostly they reveal just how much easier life is when lived from a spacious villa with a pool set in a beautiful secluded garden!

It really got me thinking that its time for a career change. Hmmm..... will start investigating how I can become a professional international house and cat sitter.....

Fujairah Rocks... real rocks....

Went on mega hike in Fujairah mountains at the weekend. We had been talking about doing this for ages but the friend with the car had been too busy. He finally had a free weekend so we all got up ridiculously early for a Friday and headed out from Sharjah on an almost empty road. Somewhere between Masafi and Fujairah we pulled off the road, parked up, stuffed 4 litres of water in each of our backpacks and got walking.

We started on a dry river bed and then went up and up and up. All the potential paths up are essentially water runs and as you get higher you can see exactly where all the different streams come down. Easy to see how sudden heavy rainfall could cause flash floods and make it a very dangerous place to be. We were really lucky with the weather. It was perfect for hiking. Overcast enough to block out the worst of the sun but not dense enough to pose any serious risk of rain.

There was really nothing much up there except goats, a few birds, trees and cane reeds, a light scattering of wild lavender and some other mountains shrubs and flowers. We did also see a couple of tiny lizards, some cool psychedelic orange wasps and a lot more flies than expected when we got out the food! However, what was most amazing was all the water. We came across a lot of tiny springs that just appear out of nowhere and then disappear back into the ground after just a few metres. The biggest one had actually eroded three downward tiered pools and it was weird to see a toad living in the biggest one along with some toad spawn, other pond like creatures and a dead beetle. It is so barren up there otherwise this was really unexpected. I guess the springs all go down into an underground aquifer somewhere nearby. Maybe they end up in Masafi bottles. So next time you buy a bottle of Masafi just remember the toad got to it first!

There were a lot of holes in the sides of mountains, some were tiny but others looked like quite large caves. We couldn't work out if these were naturally occurring or had actually been gouged out at some point. When we got up to the highest point there were a lot of large rocks that were so deeply red they looked as if they had been painted but the rock types were pretty varied so there was a range of colours in general. I am not great at identifying rock but I found a small piece of something full of shiny gold bits which could have been Dubai bling rock. Otherwise it was granite and many softer shale-type rocks which created a lot of loose scree and gravel. This made coming down quite hard especially because we took a different route down which ended up being steeper than the one we took up. This got quite challenging at times and I have an impressively large bruise on my ass to prove it but I am really glad I got to do it especially knowing that I will outta here in a couple of months. So thank you to friends with cars! Getting a taxi driver to wait at the side of a road in the middle of nowhere for 6 hours just wouldn't have been the same!