RECONNECTING Khalid Al-Hammadi, Noura Al Amri, Sara Foryame, Ahmed Al Mannai, Nasreen Jamal Al Lail, Cheb Moha, Mouna Kalla-Sacranie and Ali Al Sharji.
Sponsored by
RECONNECTING 1st - 3oth October 2016 Brighton Photo Fringe
RECONNECTING ARTS www.reconnectingarts.com info@reconnectingarts.com @ReConnectingArt
8 Contemporary Lens Based Artists from the Arab World & Diaspora.
KHALID AL HAMMADI NOURA AL AMRI SARA FORYAME AHMED AL MANNAI NASREEN JAMAL AL LAIL CHEB MOHA MOUNA KALLA-SACRANIE ALI SHARJI
RECONNECTING Reconnecting Arts a platform that supports emerging Middle Eastern Creatives presents a collective of 8 lens based artists from the Middle East and Diaspora. They reflect on their journeys and the complexities of an identity that is constantly reconnecting. With this, Reconnecting Arts, invites the audience to reflect on their own identity as well as discover similarities between them, the work and the artists. While all the artists are using a photographic method, the way in which each artist has approached the medium is experimental and questions the way in which the medium is used. The ways in which each one of them reconnects with their surroundings, their past, present and future are all explored freely through imagery, installation and video. We explore the way in which connections are formed.
Ali Al Sharji Temptation Temptation is a photograph that portrays the desire for an immortal life with no consideration for cultural, religious, and moral values. The photograph speaks of how we try to blind ourselves with materialistic means in life and tend to neglect the smaller things that actually matter. The photograph portrays an Arab woman holding a suntop (a popular 100 bz juice brand) which has an inscription that says 'the water of life' written on it, reflecting the idea that it is the simple, overlooked things that often matter the most.
Cheb Moha Visual Diary I document youth culture in a raw and alternative way, exchanging trust between friends and I, my artistic practice has become a visual diary. Showcasing lived experiences, time and spacethrough the everyday that Is often overlooked. ocumenting is my 9-5 and the images are shot of friends, or strangers who have become friends. D A sense of trust and intimacy is present as they allow me to document part of their own life, personality and style. I document the Arab youth and the overlooked through film photography.
Mouna Kalla-Sacranie Palimpsest: Palestine There are few words that encapsulate the character and history of Palestine more succinctly than the word ‘Palimpsest’. A ‘palimpsestic’ image, manuscript or landscape is one that has been reused, altered or appropriated over time, but still bears traces of its earlier form. This year, I was fortunate enough to spend the last two weeks of Ramadan in Masjid al-Aqsa, which is where these images were taken. Echoing the palimpsestic nature of the land, the images in this series are quite intricate: made up of intersecting layers and multiple photographs. The images themselves come to embody the various physical and metaphorical layers of the landscape: the layering up of memory, of landscape, of humanity, of injustice, of occupation and of survival.
Mouna Kalla-Sacranie HOME This piece was initially created in response to a poem entitled ‘How I Lost my ‘Roots’ by Sudanese/Spanish poet, Meryem Nuh. Though we often conceptualise ‘roots’ or ‘home’ as a fixed or permanent state, for some of us these terms are more multidimensional and exist in a constant state of flux. For this reason, the inspiration for this moving collage came from wanting to explore an image of ‹home›, that unfolds and changes over time. The intention of this piece was to create a depiction of the following sentiment: ‹where home is not found, a sense home can be made›. For many, identity is not monolithic, but metamorphic - sometimes jagged, other times torn, often completely undefinable. Similarly, though home can feel like lots of spaces, it can also feel like nowhere at all. Thus, the collage here functions as a kind of conceptual map and an affirmation of a sense of belonging: small enough to keep inside your back pocket, in case you ever need to find a new way home.
Khalid Al Hammadi Hayakm “Hayakm” is an Arabic word, used to welcome someone inside. As Qatar becomes the center of attention, to even Google the city ‘Doha’, only lights, glimmer and perfection is portrayed, but Doha that Google doesn’t show are the streets with doors carved intricately, the fresh bread made every morning, the masjids at every corner, the architectural wonders and the in between of all the high-rise buildings, the tiled water fountains, the birds and car horns simultaneously going at each other, the green grass against the blue buildings, and the smell of freshly made gahawa offered to a guest, and the little details of past and present that make up the city. The project is a joint collaboration between two artists and documents the developed, undeveloped and the semi-developed, in Doha, Qatar exploring space and expansion, and the effect of gentrification and urbanization. Qatar has such strong traditional and cultural roots, how does the culture withstand the pressure of development and can it? In hope culture and faith is not buried under the concrete and glass city, the project explores the areas of Doha that are not on the front pages of Google, the most intimate and future nonexistent areas of the city that will soon turn into urban developments and only will the sound remain as a memory. As Qatar invites the rest of the world to the city as it begins to develop extensively. The “Dallah” which serves Arabic coffee, is a sign of hospitality in Qatar, and we invite you to experience a glimpse of Qatar through imagery and sound.
Ahmed Al Mannai McMalta In the past few years migrants have been seeking a better life by moving to Malta. Many have died by the thousands in the Mediterranean Sea while seeing poverty and bloodshed in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Recently, a viral photo of the migrants along the coasts of Malta was captured. The migrants were caught waving a McDonald’s flag that was recycled into the flag of Malta as a sign of peace. It was only then that McDonalds used their world renowned logo ‘M’ in an advertising campaign mimicking the photo captured as a sign of global love, compassion and humanity.
Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail Abstract Pilgrimage is a personal experience which involves many intimate feelings of change.
The transformative effects of pilgrimage are celebrated in many cultures and form an integral part of the religious- mythic construct. Clarity and overcoming are, in my personal opinion, the most important part of any pilgrimage. This is what I attempt to represent in the photo-series. The black dots covering the face represent lack of clarity, impurity and distress. As the pilgrimage progresses, these dots are quarterly removed, leaving the face to emerge from behind the original opaque image. The images, therefore, serve as no more
than a representation of the intangible effects of pilgrimage.
In Transit Growing up with cultural hybridity allows ones to experience the negative and positive. Being surrounded by so many cultures, it can often set one’s self in the state of transit waiting for change and acceptance. The same image here is changed gradually, in reference to the way my identity is constantly in flux. The video piece represents the healing process of trying to break away from the notions that are attached to the image, and trying to let go of the disruption that costumes me.
Sara Foryame The Performance A series of portraits exploring the concept of identity and gender expectations. A performance is played, acting out the cultural, religious and societal assumptions placed on myself by society as an artist of colour and faith. As a female artist who stays anonymous within imagery, my husband takes my role. When talking about Muslim women we often silence them, and define who they are in relation to men, and speak on behalf of their feelings. One could say I silenced myself in the images due to not placing myself within them, but to me‌ I took control, I decided if I wanted to be in the images or not, I decided who would take my place and how each scene would be set. I constructed a Performance. I play on that role that is placed on me by being anonymous physically in the images yet aesthetically and critically I’m there. The layout mimics the domestic space of an artist and the certain objects are used to signify strength, growth and fragility. Using light and shadow mimicking a stage set, a metaphor for the intensity of the roles that have been placed on us. The question is how long do we act and how long can we keep on balancing the roles?
Noura Al Amri Everyday Saudi I think everything in my country should be captured, and I do this through my Iphone. Our traditional clothes, our religion and how people here are so religious on different levels. I feel most admiration towards the lifestyle of those less fortunate. Their lives are so simple and yet so full of colours and smiles, and they tend to be the most welcoming despite having little. I walk around the streets of Saudi, documenting women, men, children, life and everything else I come across. Street life is captured through my phone, the happy and the sad moments.
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