ART DUBAI MARCH 18-21, 2015 EDUCATION GUIDE CONTEMPORARY 1
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
ARTDUBAI.AE
WELCOME TO ART DUBAI Art Dubai is the leading international art fair in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Taking place every year in March, Art Dubai presents a select, yet diverse choice of around 90 galleries from the UAE, and from around the world, covering three programmes: Contemporary, Modern, devoted to masters from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and Marker, a curated section of art spaces that focuses each year on a particular theme or geography.
ABOUT
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Art Dubai’s extensive non-profit programme includes commissioned projects such as film and radio programmes, artists’ and curators’ residencies; educational initiatives for children through to professionals, including the year-round art school Campus Art Dubai; an annual exhibition of works by winners of The Abraaj Group Art Prize, and the Global Art Forum.
Art Dubai is held in partnership with The Abraaj Group and is sponsored by Emaar and Julius Baer. Madinat Jumeirah is home to the event. Mashreq Private Banking is the exclusive partner of Art Dubai Modern. The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority is also an important partner of Art Dubai, supporting the fair’s year-round education programme. Art Dubai is part of Art Week, an umbrella initiative that showcases the broad programme of cultural events that now coincide with the fair each March, the most dynamic time in the UAE’s cultural calendar. Special events include Design Days Dubai, the only fair in Asia dedicated to product and furniture design, Sikka, a fair dedicated to new work by UAE-based artists and run by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, and Galleries Nights, featuring over 40 new exhibitions across Al Quoz and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), as well as other projects, such as museum shows and major events throughout the Emirates, Qatar and the Gulf. Art Dubai is held under the Patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai Art Dubai Ladies Preview is held under the patronage of HH Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment, Wife of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs UAE
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Over the last eight years, Art Dubai has become a cornerstone of the region’s booming contemporary art community. Recognised as one of the most globalised meeting points in the art world today, it places it’s emphasis on maintaining it’s intimate human scale while foregrounding quality and diversity.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 18 Art Dubai Ladies’ Preview Global Art Forum 9 Art Dubai Opening
3pm – 7:30pm 4pm – 9.30pm
THURSDAY MARCH 19 Global Art Forum 9 Art Dubai Programme and Gallery Halls
2pm – 9.30pm 5:30pm – 7:30pm
FRIDAY MARCH 20 Art Dubai Programme and Gallery Halls Global Art Forum 9: 89plus
12pm - 6.30pm
SATURDAY MARCH 21 Art Dubai Programme and Gallery Halls
LOCATION Madinat Jumeirah, Al Sufouh Road, Umm Suqeim Exit 39 (Interchange 4 from Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE
ADMISSION Tickets to Art Dubai can be purchased onsite during the fair. One-Day Pass: 50 AED Three-Day Pass: 80 AED Children 18 years old and under are admitted free of charge. University students can also enter free upon show of student ID. All visiting groups must pre-book by emailing Art Dubai at noor@artdubai.ae. It is suggested that students move through the exhibition in small groups looking at and discussing objects, graphics, and relevant text. These materials include an exhibition briefing sheet for adults to help focus students’ thoughts in each section of the exhibition.
GALLERY ETIQUETTE • Please do not touch the works of art for your safety and the safety of the works of art. • Photography is allowed in the exhibition. • Please note that food, drinks, and chewing gum are not allowed in the exhibition. • Pencils can be used for writing or sketching. No crayons, pens, markers, or wet materials are permitted in the fair. • Please do not lean on walls or pedestals and do not use them as writing surfaces. • Please silence mobile phones and please use a soft voice so that you do not distract other groups in the exhibition. • Running is not permitted within the exhibition so you do not hurt yourself or damage works of art.
ART DUBAI OPENING TIMES
1pm – 4pm 3pm – 7:30pm 4pm – 9:30pm
INTRODUCTION The Guide offers a basic introduction for visitors, who would like to know more about how to approach Contemporary Art. It will draw nine examples featured in the fair to illustrate key points of Contemporary Art. Although they might not give a detailed idea of Contemporary Art, similar styles and ideas can be found in various other artist’s work.
INTRODUCTION
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ABOUT CONTEMPORARY ART Questions such as “What is art?” and “What is the functionof art?” are not new. Creating art that defies viewers’ expectations and artistic conventions is a relatively modern concept. It can be debated, whether art is a products of the artist’s environment, the surrounding culture and time.
Strictly speaking, the term “Contemporary Art” refers to art made and produced by artists living today, working and responding to a global environment that is culturally diverse, technologically advanced, and multifaceted. A wide range of mediums enables contemporary artists to reflect and comment on modern society. When occupying with Contemporary Art, viewers are not challenged to set aside questions such as, “Is a work of art good?” but rather “Is the work aesthetically pleasing?” Viewers consider whether art is “challenging” or “interesting.” Contemporary artists may question traditional ideas of how art is defined, what art consist of, and how it is made, and rather create a dialogue, sometimes rejecting styles and movements. (Source: http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/ classroom_resources/ curricula/contemporary_art/background1.html)
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Contemporary artists are in a position to express themselves, and respond to social issues in a way that artists of the past were hardly able to. Experiencing Contemporary Art, viewers use different criteria for judging than in the past. Instead of asking, “Do I like how this looks?” viewers might ask, “Do I like the idea this artist presents?” Having an open mind goes a long way towards understanding, and even appreciating, the art of our own era.
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7 KEY STATEMENTS OF CONTEMPORARY ART WHICH REOCCUR IN DIFFERENT ARTWORKS 1. Contemporary Art is often humorous and provocative, and mixes ‘high’ with ‘low’ culture. (A19: Slavs & Tatar / Raster)
INTRODUCTION
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2. Contemporary Art installations often make full use of the space they are in. In Contemporary Art, artists go beyond borders and confines of a picture, a painting frame or pedestal, often creating works that fill an entire room or space. Site-Specific Art reclaims public space through art. The city becomes a zone of experimentation and perspective, encouraging artist as well as audience to see the landscape and objects within in a new way. Questions about time, impermanence, memory, artifice and locality arise, providing raw materials for the artist and points of access for the audience. (A44: Anila Quayyum Agha / Aicon Gallery)
4. Contemporary artists often explore new art forms and experiment with artistic mediums, such as new media or digital art, or sound art. (A28: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Carroll/Fletcher) 5. Contemporary Art often deals with current political, social and cultural issues. (J24: Sama Alshaibi / Ayyam Gallery) 6. Contemporary artists often revisit and rework daily on common objects and images to explore contemporary issues. (A31: Giuseppe Stampone / Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch & A36: Mona Hatoum / Galleria Continua) 7. Contemporary Art often prospers from Art History and other cultural knowledge. Contemporary artists, like many artists that preceded them, may acknowledge and find inspiration in art works from previous time, periods of both subject matter and formal elements. Sometimes this inspiration takes the form of appropriation. (A8: Shaun McDowell / Hannah Barry Gallery)
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
3. Contemporary artists are often influenced by their surroundings and their background, might it be personal, cultural, or socio-political, as well as make reference to it. (J4: Andrei Roiter / Laura Bulian Gallery)
1. CONTEMPORARY ART IS OFTEN HUMOROUS AND PROVOCATIVE, AND MIXES ‘HIGH’ WITH ‘LOW’ CULTURE.
Slavs and Tatars’ work encompasses several media, disciplines, and a broad spectrum of cultural registers focusing on an often forgotten sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians and Central Asians. The collective often combines those things that are regarded as opposites, or incompatible, including metaphysics and humour, pop culture and geopolitics. Throughout their multidisciplinary work, the collective has discovered language as an instrument for disruption, humour, and unexpected meaning, emphasizing its potential to be affective and sensual. This colourful textile by Slavs and Tatars plays with the phrase Lahestan Nesfeh Jahan (literally: “Poland, Half the World”) which commemorates the forgotten World War II episode of Polish refugees moving to Iran, and when Esfahan came to be known as the City of Polish Children. The text is both an allusion and revision of the city’s legendary slogan, perhaps one of the most famous in Persian, “Esfahan Nesfeh Jahan” (“Esfahan, Half the World”). Using embroidery as a drawing medium, this banner celebrates the use of traditional craftsmanship and techniques. It was produced by the same craftsmen who made the banners used during the Shi’ite holy month of Muharram marking the death of Imam Hossein, the Prophet’s Grandson, thus lending the piece a religious and sacred connotation. The fusion of different historical and cultural experiences are woven into this highly charming and provocative art work which redefines and rewrites traditional handwork as a universal form of creative expression.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Slavs and Tatars Lahestan Nesfeh Jahan 2011 Embroidery, cotton, thread, mesh polyester 200 x 120 cm Courtesy of Raster Gallery
RASTER BOOTH A19
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2. CONTEMPORARY ART INSTALLATIONS OFTEN MAKE FULL USE OF THE SPACE THEY ARE IN. IN CONTEMPORARY ART, ARTISTS GO BEYOND BORDERS AND CONFINES OF A PICTURE, A PAINTING FRAME OR PEDESTAL, OFTEN CREATING WORKS THAT FILL AN ENTIRE ROOM OR SPACE.
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SITE-SPECIFIC ART RECLAIMS PUBLIC SPACE THROUGH ART. THE CITY BECOMES A ZONE OF EXPERIMENTATION AND PERSPECTIVE, ENCOURAGING ARTIST AS WELL AS AUDIENCE TO SEE THE LANDSCAPE AND OBJECTS WITHIN IN A NEW WAY. QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME, IMPERMANENCE, MEMORY, ARTIFICE AND LOCALITY ARISE, PROVIDING RAW MATERIALS FOR THE ARTIST AND POINTS OF ACCESS FOR THE AUDIENCE.
Anila Quayyum Agha works inter-disciplinary with mixed media, creating works of art that explore and comment on global politics, cultural issues, mass media, and social and gender roles. As a result, her work is conceptually challenging while embodying complex notions of thought, artistic action, and social experience. Having lived in contrasting cultures like Pakistan and the USA, and experienced the boundaries of different faiths such as Islam and Christianity, Agha’s art is essentially influenced by the simultaneous sense of alienation and transience that defines the migrant experience. This idea of knowing what is distinctive about the human experience also bears the gift of knowing its main commonalities and it is these tensions and contradictions that are encapsulated in her work.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Anila Quayyum Agha Intersections 2015 Stainless steel and light bulb 152 x 152 x 147 cm Courtesy of Aicon Gallery
In her large sculptural installations, including Intersections, she explores the deeply interwoven political relationships between gender, culture and religion, while taking Islamic themes, techniques and traditions as a starting point for her contemporary practice. Ancient artistic forms are incorporated and newly interpreted in her work achieving to bridge the gap between modern materials and the historical and traditional patterns.
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Her experiences both in her native country and as an immigrant in the United States are reflected in her work of redefining and rewriting handwork as a poignant form of creative expression. The conceptual ambiguity of the resulting patterns, create an interactive experience in which the viewer’s subjective experiences of alienation and belonging become part of the art work and its identity.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
3. CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ARE OFTEN INFLUENCED BY THEIR SURROUNDINGS AND THEIR BACKGROUND, MIGHT IT BE PERSONAL, CULTURAL, OR SOCIO-POLITICAL, AS WELL AS MAKE REFERENCE TO IT.
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EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Andrei Roiter Globe 2011 Oil on canvas 180 x 150 cm Courtesy of Laura Bulian Gallery
The search of a social, cultural and political identity in a global contemporary world is a prominent and reoccurring theme in Contemporary Art. The generational and geo-political background of Andrei Roiter (b. 1961, Russia) becomes manifest in the recurrent central ideas and themes of his work. According to Roiter, wandering and peregrination should not be regarded as a social phenomenon but rather as a form of human destiny. In his works of art he creates surreal and ironic constructions, as well as mobile and fluctuating structures, including suspended architectures that are reminiscent of a passing and transitory dimension and understanding of the world we live in. Roiter believes that the politics of identity are inseparable from the politics of memory and it is this essential idea that his works are subtly alluding to. The Globe might be read as an illusory alternative to real life while combining forms of life itself with objects from the past.
4. CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS OFTEN EXPLORE NEW ART FORMS AND EXPERIMENT WITH ARTISTIC MEDIUMS, SUCH AS NEW MEDIA OR DIGITAL ART, OR SOUND ART.
Electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967, Mexico City) creates large-scale interactive installations that are a crossover between architecture and performance art. His main interest lies in developing platforms for public participation, by perverting modern technologies such as robotics, computerised surveillance or telematics networks. Pulse Index is an interactive installation encompassing hundreds of images of fingerprints, the most commonly used form of biometric identification. Visitors are invited to place their finger into a custom-made sensor equipped with a 220x digital microscope and a heart rate sensor. The microscope records their fingerprint and immediately relays it onto the largest cell of the wall-to-wall display screens, pulsating at the individual rhythm of their heartbeat. The work presents data for more than 750 participants in a stepped display that follows the Fibonacci sequence which can be adapted to the growth of every living thing including fingerprints. As more people interact with the installation, one’s own recording travels upwards until it disappears altogether. In this way, the artwork is generated entirely by its visitors, in a kind of memento mori. Exhibited together with Please Empty your Pockets, these immersive installations transmit a language of surveillance and monitoring – from digitally map visitors’ personal information into entirely crowd-sourced works of art.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Pulse Index 2010 HD projectors, computer, digital microscope, industrial camera, metal enclosure, custom software dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Carroll/Fletcher
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5. CONTEMPORARY ART OFTEN DEALS WITH CURRENT POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES.
Sama Alshaibi’s multimedia oeuvre, including performances, photography and video, explores the dynamics between spaces of conflict, unrest and power struggles that emerge as a consequence of war and exile. Exposing the hidden constraints of human behaviour, her work explores particularly the tensions between occupation and exile and its consequences for the human psyche. Alshaibi is particularly interested in how such clashes occur between citizens and the state, creating disturbing crises that impact the physical and psychic realms of the individual as resources and land, mobility, political agency, and self-affirmation are compromised. Most of Alshaibi’s works share the characteristic use of the body as a allegorical site that makes the byproducts of war visible. As a result, her own body becomes the signifier of a nation, negotiating between individual and collective concerns that are both political and social while presenting herself as a female protagonist. Alshaibi’s works articulate not only cultural statements through her Iraqi background and heritage, but more significantly convey an introverted reflectiveness and consciousness in the tensions she presents.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Sama Alshaibi Fatnis Al-Jazirah (Fantasy Island) 2014 C-Print Edition 1/5 60 x 90 cm Courtesy of Ayyam Gallery
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6. CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS OFTEN REVISIT AND REWORK DAILY ON COMMON OBJECTS AND IMAGES TO EXPLORE CONTEMPORARY ISSUES.
Everyday objects, collective experiences and daily life events are the starting point for the artistic creation of Giuseppe Stampone (b. 1974, France). Stampone’s artistic oeuvre ranges from multimedia installations and videos to drawings made with Bic pen, a technique common to several of his projects, including the series Greetings from Istanbul in which everyday events and titles are reinterpreted and transformed into ambiguous works of art. Through his intricate drawings and use of prominent titles and themes from the mass media, Stampone gives us a very personal and inexorable criticism of the present time. He encourages and stimulates the viewer to reflect on the logical connection between reality and its iconic representation by using the seductive appeal of familiar objects and faces from the consumer society. In this process the artist adopts the role of a modern-day diarist and creates faithful reproductions of these, but distorts their original context and function to use them for his own artistic research in an attempt to challenge and reinterpret reality according to a new order. The work of Stampone has been described as that of an artist-activist in an age of political crisis and increasing public vigilance. In this context his art can be situated as a potent form of political protest while introducing an alternative socio-political agenda. His artistic approach is nuanced and methodical, inviting audiences to contemplate on basic issues such as immigration, war, natural and man-made disasters and conflicts that constantly reoccur in the 21st century.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Giuseppe Stampone Greetings from Istanbul (Tilt) 2014 Bic pen on paper 40 x 30 cm Courtesy of Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch
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Mona Hatoum’s (b. 1952, Lebanon) poetic and political oeuvre becomes manifest in a diverse and unconventional range of media, including installations, sculpture, video, photography and works on paper. In the 1980s Hatoum started her career with visceral video and performance works that emphasized and explored the human body. Since the 1990s her work developed increasingly towards installation works that aim to engage the viewer in conflicting emotions of desire and disgust, fear and fascination. In her singular sculptures, Hatoum has transformed familiar, every-day and domestic objects such as chairs, cots and kitchen utensils into foreign, threatening and dangerous items. Even the human body is rendered strange in her imaginative works, most prominently Corps étrangers or Deep Throat that use endoscopic journeys through the interior landscape of the artist’s own body. In other works Hatoum uses an assemblage of household furniture connected with an audibly active electric element – combining the notion of threat and fear with a surrealist sense of humour to create novel and provocative works that stimulate the onlooker on an emotional and intellectual level. In smaller sculptural works Hatoum uses found materials, characterized by a rich patina and charged with personal resonance, to create poetic, alluring works that invite the viewer to a moment of intimate reflection.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Mona Hattoum Green Cage 2014 Wood, wire and human hair 21 x 16 cm Courtesy of Galleria Continua
7. CONTEMPORARY ART OFTEN PROSPERS FROM ART HISTORY AND OTHER CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE. CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS, LIKE MANY ARTISTS THAT PRECEDED THEM, MAY ACKNOWLEDGE AND FIND INSPIRATION IN ART WORKS FROM PREVIOUS TIME, PERIODS OF BOTH SUBJECT MATTER AND FORMAL ELEMENTS. SOMETIMES THIS INSPIRATION TAKES THE FORM OF APPROPRIATION.
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EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Shaun McDowell None Shall Sleep 2013 Oil on board 113 x 113 cm Courtesy of Hannah Barry Gallery
In the early 1940s a stylistically diverse body of work was developed in New York that introduced radical new ideas and forms in art. Not merely a formal association, “Abstract Expressionism” or “The New York School” broke away from accepted and established conventions in both technique and subject matter. The works associated with this development have been described as reflections of the artist’s individual psyches attempting to focus on universal inner sources. This artistic movement appreciated spontaneity and improvisation, and valued the highest importance to the artistic process which can be summarized around two basic tendencies: an emphasis on dynamic, energetic gesture, in contrast to a reflective, cerebral focus on more open fields of color. In both cases, the imagery favored a highly abstracted mode.
One might argue that British artist Shaun McDowell’s (b. 1981) works share some common assumptions with this groundbreaking artistic approach of the 20th century. Inspired by “Abstract Expressionism”, McDowell has developed distinct series of paintings using different materials and applications in each body, including acrylic paint applied by hand, oil stick drawn and smudged, oil paint applied wet on dry to build up layers of clear independent marks that form a whole. Inspired by nude models, McDowell has cultivated an intriguing language of abstract synaesthetic expression.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
McDowell is known for his vibrant and energetic works that reflect an intuitive process in creating multilayered forms which in their complexity however reveal a sense of calculation in the planing of its layers. The Referring to his solo show ‘The Souvenir’ in 2012, the Financial Times has described him as the “most exciting abstract painter of his generation”. His recent artistic practice has explored painting as a means of holding the ideas of being alive - suffering and joy, agitation and peace, longing and satisfaction. His works might be read as vigils and the groups of paintings as litanies that underline these truths. These paintings appear abstract, yet precisely suggest the feelings of form and life, and transport the experience of it. Therein lies their strength and fascination. It is the possibility to simultaneously contemplate abstractions and ideas in a pure and free form that characterizes the art of Shaun McDowell.
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Poetry as a form of literature uses aesthetic and formal qualities of language to evoke meaning and emotive reactions. Characterized by its stylized and abstract form, it often requires the engagement from the reader to become actively involved in this process of communication and in establishing a connection with the world around us. Ambiguity, allusion and association are conventional devices used in order to achieve a psychological, emotional and intellectual response in the reader. Basim Magdy (b. 1977, Egypt) borrows from these literary devices to create subtle, meaningful artworks with a poetic quality and depth of vision. In his archival photographs and artistic processes of photomontage and analogue photography, his works can be read on multiple layers, giving a lasting physical form to what is intangible. In Basim Magdy’s work we are exposed to the world through a satirical eye. His drawings, sculptures and installations are conceived with an appreciation for the absurd and fantastical. They build a universe that has gone out of balance or is in the process of re-creating itself. Like dreams, elements of a familiar landscape stem out of reality. Past, present and future are merged together and exist as a single realm. Novel forms and artistic techniques are applied that suggest a differential interpretation of familiar images and objects. In ‘Fate brought us to the shores of a lava lake at dawn’ or ‘A world within a world within a world within an orange coral wall’ depictions of landscape, rockets, and natural elements convey a surreal and psychedelic quality. The result is a distinctive aesthetic sensibility of the spaces he creates that are both retro and futuristic, challenging the confines of time and space. Poetic but ambiguous titles of his works add another dimension to the narrative while expanding the boundaries of our imagination.
EDUCATION GUIDE: CONTEMPORARY
Basim Magdy Fate Brought Us to the Shores of a Lava Lake at Dawn (no. 1) 2014 C-print from a chemically altered negative on metallic paper 82 x 100 cm Courtesy of the artist and Gypsum Gallery
EDUCATIONAL GUIDE Editors: Anahita Sadighi and Bettina Klein Design: Layan Attari Š Art Dubai. All rights reserved. No part of this educational guide may be reproduced without prior permission from Art Dubai.