Tribe 09

Page 22

REVIEW Images - Courtesy of Jameel Arts Centre. Writer - Christopher Joshua Benton, artist, creative director and journalist.

Jameel Arts Centre: Farah Al Qasimi Entering the Interzone These days the virtual and the real appear to be

what appears to be an old family photo book. ‘I

collapsing into each other. Not only are we easily

think of obfuscation as protection,’ Al Qasimi said

confused by what is real or fake, but sometimes

in an interview with Tribe. “I try to seek meaning in

the artificial appears even more real. It’s at this

gesture, or movement, or social dynamic rather than

intersection where one finds the complex work

in facial expression or visibility.”

of Farah Al Qasimi, whose excellent survey for Jameel Arts Centre brings the Abu Dhabi-raised,

Elsewhere in the show, we see an American soldier

Yale-educated, New York City based photographer

being consoled or pulled away while taking a

back to the Emirates.

phone call. While in Gaith at Home we see a Khaleeji man eyes-closed in repose atop crisp bed

Interestingly Dragon Mart, Dubai’s kaleidoscopically

linens. Al Qasimi, always the master colour stylist,

kitsch emporium of everything, and the largest

bathes the scene in shadow and dims the man in

Chinese market outside of China, is the subject of

white, just a few hints of skin to guide your eye.

about a third of the works in the show. Originally

The subject’s gesture is tentative and suspended

commissioned as part of Art Dubai’s Global Art

between frames: is he about to tie his ghutra? Is he

Forum, these deadpan images consolidate many of

practicing kundalini finger meditation? The image,

Al Qasimi’s leitmotifs—an interest in the hyperreal,

of course, is posed—but it feels real, candid. Images

the sci-fi artifice of the Gulf, and perceptions of

like these complicate and subvert the expectation

class and taste (and its signifiers)—and cranks them

of power through striking moments of intimacy and

Installation view of Artist’s Rooms

up to larger-than-life proportions. My favourite is

fragility. “The Emirates is a society that upholds

Photo courtesy of Jameel Arts Centre

Dragon Mart LED Display, which (incredulously!)

social boundaries and formalities, particularly across

contemporises Dutch still-life and folds it into a

genders” Al Qasimi told us. “I’m trying to break

Technicolor window display, brim-full of Shenzhen-

down some of these boundaries by entering spaces

via-Yiwu motorized tchotchkes, plastic flowers and

you don’t normally see, hinting at personal lives and

art. And yet, regardless of the photographic or

LED strips.

informal moments.”

artistic tradition, the result is unmistakably Farah Al Qasimi.

Quickly you will notice many of the figures in these

Across these 19 images, Al Qasimi skillfully presents

photographs are implied, camouflaged, obscured,

various modes of photo-making, from appropriating

Stare into the images long enough and you might

or silhouetted—but never fully seen. This ambiguity

the glossy seductive aesthetics of commercial fashion

fall into them. Al Qasimi’s brand of Gulf Futurism is

creates a sense of the uncanny, inviting the viewer

photography in M Napping on Carpet, to flâneur-

less ironic than her contemporaries, but probably

to interrogate the mise en scène for clues of

mode street photography in her Dragon Mart series.

more complex—offering up a sentimental, nostalgic,

narratives, place and context. In one image a man

Her trademark wall wraps, which often background

and critical window that is world-building for a space

pulls a disappearing act in a billow of smoke; while

other framed photos as wallpaper would, add a

identical to the Emirates but weirder, parallel to

in another, two males are blacked out by time in

trompe l’oeil tableau, while also signaling installation

what we see everyday, yet altogether more fantastic.

22 tribe


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.