Ahmed AlBahrani catalogue

PUBLISHED BY A R T S PA C E H A M R A 2015

ALBAHRANI B i o g r a p h y

A R T S P A C E

H A M R A

P R E S E N T S

B I O G R A P H Y

O P E N I N G

E X H I B I T I O N

SEPT 16 – OCT 08, 2015

B E I R U T, L E B A N O N 2 0 1 5

‫اﻧﻬﺎ ﻟﻴﺴﺖ ﺳريه ﺷﺨﺼﻴﻪ !! ‪...‬ﻫﻲ ﺳريه ﺟﻴﻞ ﻻﻳﺘﺬﻛﺮ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻮﻃﻦ ﻏري راﺋﺤﻪ اﻟﺤﺮاﺋﻖ وﺿﺠﻴﺞ اﻟﺤﺮوب وﻃﻌﻢ ﺧﺒﺰ اﻷﻣﻬﺎت اﻟﺜﻜﺎﱃ ﺑﺜﻴﺎﺑﻬﻦ اﻟﺴﻮداء ‪.‬‬ ‫ﺻﺪﻳﻘﻲ اﻟﺪﻳﻚ اﻟﺬي أﻫﺪاين إﻳﺎه ايب و ﻓﺎرﻗﻨﻲ دون وداع‪.‬‬ ‫أﺣﻤﺪاﺗﺬﻛﺮ‬ ‫ﻻزﻟﺖ‬ ‫اﻟﺒﺤﺮاﻧﻲ‬ ‫ﻻزﻟﺖ أﺗﺬﻛﺮ اﻟﻔﺮات اﻟﺬي ﻛﺎن ﺷﺎﻃﺌﻪ ﻣﺤﱰﰲ اﻷول وﻫﻨﺎك ﺻﻨﻌﺖ اول اﻋامﱄ ﻋﻨﺪﻣﺎ ﻛﻨﺖ ﺻﻐريا ً وأﻛﺮﻣﻨﻲ اﻟﻨﻬﺮ وأﻗﺘﻨﺎﻫﺎ ﻣﻨﻲ !‬ ‫اﻧﻬﺎ ﻟﻴﺴﺖ ﺳﻴﺮه ﺷﺨﺼﻴﻪ !! ‪...‬ﻫﻲ ﺳﻴﺮه ﺟﻴﻞ ﻻﻳﺘﺬﻛﺮ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻮﻃﻦ ﻏﻴﺮ راﺋﺤﻪ اﳊﺮاﺋﻖ وﺿﺠﻴﺞ اﳊﺮوب وﻃﻌﻢ ﺧﺒﺰ اﻷﻣﻬﺎت اﻟﺜﻜﺎﻟﻰ‬ ‫ﺑﺜﻴﺎﺑﻬﻦ اﻟﺴﻮداء ‪.‬‬ ‫ﻻزﻟﺖ اﺗﺬﻛﺮ ﺻﺪﻳﻘﻲ اﻟﺪﻳﻚ اﻟﺬي أﻫﺪاﻧﻲ إﻳﺎه اﺑﻲ اﻟﺬي ﻓﺎرﻗﻨﻲ دون وداع‪.‬‬ ‫وأﻗﺘﻨﺎﻫﺎ ﻣﻨﻲ !‬ ‫ﻻزﻟﺖ أﺗﺬﻛﺮ اﻟﻔﺮات اﻟﺬي ﻛﺎن ﺷﺎﻃﺌﻪ ﻣﺤﺘﺮﰲ اﻷول وﻫﻨﺎك ﺻﻨﻌﺖ اول اﻋﻤﺎﻟﻲ ﻋﻨﺪﻣﺎ ﻛﻨﺖ ﺻﻐﻴﺮاً وأﻛﺮﻣﻨﻲ اﻟﻨﻬﺮ‬ ‫أﺣﻤﺪ اﻟﺒﺤﺮاين‬

THE LOAD 51 X 33 X 30 CM BRONZE 2015

DREAM 130 X 78 X 125 CM BRONZE 2015

HOME 25 CM 34 X 53 CM BRONZE 2015

MESOPOTAMIA 43 X 20 X 36 CM BRONZE 2015

NEST 24 X 42 X 55 CM BRONZE 2015

NO TO WAR 17 X 18 X 38 CM BRONZE 2015

INTENTIONS 51 X 32 X 20 CM BRONZE 2015

UPROOTING 51 X 34 X 34 CM BRONZE 2015

MEMORIAL 131 X 40 X 40 CM BRONZE 2015

GREEN DREAM 130 X 47 X 106 CM BRONZE 2015

WITNESS 66 X 136 X 23 CM BRONZE 2015

BREAKING NEWS 130 X 47 X 106 CM BRONZE 2015

FAMILY 47 X 37 X 54 CM BRONZE 2015

SACRIFICE 102 X 30 X 44 CM BRONZE 2015

THE LOAD 51 X 33 X 30 CM BRONZE 2015

Biography With his latest exhibition, Biography, sculptor Ahmed al Bahrani reimagines self-portraiture as he recounts his autobiography, reflecting a shift toward greater subjectivity. Although narrative elements are limited to the details of a specific memory or experience, providing the content of each sculpture, unifying themes such as forced migration and the fallout of war are woven throughout the dozen or so works, giving the series its objective threads. Al Bahrani appears in most of his recent sculptures. Meticulously rendered, his self-image is shown at the center of allegorical scenes, surrounded by signifiers. The imposing symbols of the sculptures represent different aspects of the artist’s life, such as the formative events of his childhood in Iraq or his emigration in the 1990s, when his family traveled to Jordan, Yemen, and Qatar before settling in Sweden. When brought together, the works can be read as vignettes: reflective fragments that form a larger, multifaceted portrait.

In The Load (2015), for example, the sculptor’s face is the focal point of a bust that depicts him staring past the viewer. His eyes are swollen and tired, their upper and lower lids depicted with additional volume. The pupils of the portrait have been rubbed, revealing the metallic undercoat of bronze—an effect that highlights al Bahrani’s stoic expression. His face is weathered with slight indentations yet cast with muscular contours and deep lines that form a furrowed brow. A crown of thorns fastened above his head references the persecution of Jesus Christ and the mockery and torture he endured before his crucifixion. The iconic halo is incorporated as a metaphor for the difficulties of displacement. Al Bahrani’s portrait ends below the neckline, his shoulders and chest seem cemented to the lower portion of the bust, which is left unfinished with evidence of the sculpting process. The contrast between the artist’s detailed face and this section of the work suggests a figure emerging from a shattered state.

Witness (2015) shows al Bahrani determinedly walking toward the viewer. The artist is partially nude in the full-length rendering. Carefully outlined, the tightened muscles of the figure’s torso reflect the physical tension of deliberate movement while a spectacular set of wings seems to be his only source of balance. At the base of the sculpture is a rectangular block containing a grid and a series of markings that resemble cuneiform, identifying the context of the work. The reference to Iraq’s ancient culture is also biographical; al Bahrani was born in a rural area near the archeological site of Babylon, adjacent to the Euphrates River. In the mythical portrait, the artist towers over the remnants of the city as though examining it from above. His winged image brings to mind the embodied description of triumph found in the second-century sculpture The Nike of Samothrace. The Hellenistic work is believed to have commemorated the victory of a battle at sea with a celestial messenger descending onto a ship. The feathered appendages also evoke the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, a prominent figure in the Babylonian pantheon associated with love and war. The symbolism of al Bahrani’s work is ambiguous: is he flying away from the war-torn city or rising from the ruins of its ancient past? Or do the wings signal the sculptor’s return as a messenger to his birthplace?

Open-ended signifiers are used throughout the series. Such ambiguity results from al Bahrani’s adaptation of the historical forms and concepts of sculpture. In “Sculpture in the Expanded Field,” Rosalind Krauss discusses the “internal logic” of the medium as “inseparable from the logic of the monument” (October, Vol. 8, Spring 1979). Krauss cites the predominant function of sculpture as a commemorative art form from ancient times until the modern period. Under the influence of modernism, she argues, a “negative condition” developed. With the abstraction of sculpture that became commonplace after Cubism, the medium entered “a kind of sitelessness.” Executed in bronze and often in the round (some nearly life-size), at first glance al Bahrani’s works resemble classical examples. The loss of place that Krauss describes is seen in how the artist approaches the monument as a workable form of self-portraiture, distorting the distinctions between subjective narratives and objective (or historical) depictions. His body is transformed into a three-dimensional art object (whole or sometimes fractured), the formalism of which allows the viewer to trace the intricacies and intersections of reality and representation.= As Joanna Woods-Marsden reaffirms in Renaissance Self-Portraiture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), self-images are produced within social, cultural, and political climates. The subtleties of a self-portrait, the deliberate and unconscious details of the work, situate the artist’s image, revealing contextual factors. Al Bahrani’s interpretation of self-portraiture through the characteristics of monumental sculpture—evident in the scale, media, and realism of the works—articulates the gravity of his subject matter. Additionally, this expands the element of time in his works to include both the past and the present, while space (or the suggestion of a given setting) remains unfixed, fitting Krauss’ description of contemporary sculpture as “essentially nomadic.”

Krauss also notes that one of the distinguishing aspects of postmodernism is that art is no longer driven by the conditions of specific materials. Al Bahrani’s Home (2015) and Nostalgia (2015) demonstrate how sculpture and installation are now mutually informed. The works invoke Rene Magritte’s surrealist painting, The Treachery of Images (1928-29), which shows a smoking pipe and the phrase, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (This is not a pipe). With the included text, Magritte confirms the objecthood of the painting in order to question the soundness of art. Moreover, the inscription leads the viewer to believe that the picture’s subject could serve as an indicator of metaphysical content, intangible subject matter that lies beyond its surface. Based on ordinary items, Home and Nostalgia can be displayed in myriad ways. Concept supersedes form in the freestanding works, if one considers the “internal logic” of sculpture.

Home was cast from a cushion that was folded with a pillow at its center then tied with a rope. The volume and mass of the sculpture are derived from the original shape of the assembled items, making it appear like a found object. The title of the work is etched into the front of the piece in large letters. Adopting the dislodged structure of Magritte’s pipe, al Bahrani identifies the subject matter of the bundle as the obstacles of migration and the sense of permanent instability felt by his immediate family, who are depicted with the artist in a separate group portrait. When collectively exhibited, the portraits reveal the gaps between experience and

representation, and the psychic spaces that consequently form. Although Nostalgia similarly approaches allegory from a metaphysical position, its message is political. The large work seems to float across the platform or floor where it is displayed. From above, the object looks like an egg. Its smooth exterior has been distressed, creating a green patina as though weathered from long exposure to the elements. In a statement, al Bahrani associates the fragile nature of a balloon with the current state of Iraq. Caught in the crossfire of a protracted conflict, the country’s fate is passed between various parties like a ball among children. The inscription of the work is not only a condemnation of the political forces at play but also an expression of loss.

In other works of the series, al Bahrani amasses contrasting images as surrealist compositions, considering reality from an alternative vantage point. Sculptures such as Memorial (2015) and The Load (2015) articulate the potential of self-portraiture as an indicator of the subconscious mind. Memorial is arguably the centerpiece of the artist’s new work, and encapsulates the overlapping themes of the series with effectual symbolism. The mixed-media work is executed in the form of a statue on a pedestal with the base in the shape of a chess piece.

The figure resting on the extra-large pawn is a hybrid creature, a portrait of the artist as a rooster.

A disturbing story from al Bahrani’s childhood inspired the self-portrait. One summer morning when the artist was a small boy his father killed his pet rooster upon discovering that the domesticated bird had drawn blood from the child’s face when attempting to wake him. The artist describes witnessing such violence as a traumatic experience: the killing of his pet as a moment of betrayal that shook him to his core. Empathizing with the harmless animal, the memory haunts him.

In Memorial, the rooster is resurrected as a majestic beast, its puffed chest proudly displayed as it struts. The gold-plated head of the statue is sculpted in al Bahrani’s likeness with the raised comb of the animal placed as a crown. Although outwardly composed, al Bahrani’s face displays signs of fatigue and profound sadness.

According to the artist, the chess piece is a metaphor for those who must move “between cities, countries, and memories…from one square to another.” Pairing the portrait with the bronze pedestal outlines the existential bases of the series: the severed sense of self and place that arises when the architects of war continue to determine the fate of an exile.

The Monumentality of Ahmed al Bahrani's Self-Portraits

By Maymanah Farhat

AHMED AL –BAHRANI 1965 Born in Babylon, Iraq 1988 Diploma, Fine Arts Institute, Baghdad 94-1992 Taught Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad Founder of Mimar Gallery with Architect Hazem Abu Naba’a Qatar EXHIBITIONS – Selected 2013 December - Art Basel Miami Beach -solo exhibition 2013 September - Beirut Art Fair 2012 April - Art Sawa Gallery Dubai 2012 April - Ghassan Ghaib and Ahmed Al-Bahrani exhibition of “NOSTALGIA” at Jacaranda Amman, Jordan 2012 January - ALmarkhiya Gallery Doha Qatar 2011 November Dress Code Project - Art Sawa Gallery Dubai 2011 February - Orfale Gallery 2011 January - Katara Doha Qatar 2010 April – (LTMH) Gallery, New York, “ Beyond the War: Contemporary Iraqi Artists of the Diaspora: 2010 December - Miami Sculpture Biennale 2010 December - Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain, Group exhibition 2010 March – Art Sawa Gallery Dubai, “My Homeland: Contemporary Artists from Iraq” 2010 February – Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain, “A Chair and a Painting” Group exhibition 2009 January – Art Sawa Gallery, Dubai, “ Contemporary Artists from Iraq” 2008 March – Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain, Solo exhibition 2006 May – Dar Al Fanoun, Kuwait, Solo exhibition 2006 March – Al Bareh Art Gallery, Bahrain, solo exhibition 2006 January – 4 Walls Gallery, Amman, Jordan, solo exhibition 2004 - Green Art, Dubai, solo exhibition 2003 - Green Art, Dubai, “Contemporary Artists from Iraq” Group exhibition 2002 – Bissan Gallery, in association with the French Cultural Centre, Qatar 2002 Al Bida Gallery, in association with the National Council for Culture, Art and Heritage, Qatar, solo exhibition 2001 – Al-Fardan Gardens, sponsored by Al-Fardan Group, Qatar 2000 - French Ambassador’s residence, Qatar, solo exhibition 1998 – Al Afif Gallery, San’a, “ Contemporary Artists from Iraq” group exhibition 1999 – French Cultural Centre, San’a

Artspace Hamra Artspace Hamra is an art gallery and multidisciplinary cultural space, promoting and supporting modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art. By conducting exhibitions, thematic residencies, art education and workshops, the organization aims to create an interactive and open platform for arts and culture. Our ambition is to initiate a dialogue between cultures and advance knowledge both locally and globally.

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