CULTURAL ROULETTE: A KALEIDOSCOPE OF EXHIBITIONS IN DUBAI
Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in contrast to the fast-paced and ever-growing skyline, has been gaining traction for its well-curated cultural symposiums and the burgeoning cultural scene. The currently exhibiting galleries convey a quintessential and poignant message of self-reflection as we enter the new year. Here are some of the exhibitions you can look forward to if you are in Dubai.
Poetry of Water by Maxi Cohen, Leila Heller Gallery
An award-winning artist and filmmaker, Maxi Cohen is based out of New York City. Known for her immersive installations, photographs, and mixed reality, Maxi Cohen employs water as a medium, drawing inspiration from the lyrical movement of water.
The exhibition contributes to the ongoing discourse surrounding climate change. Desertification has become a common denominator across the globe, and in particular in the UAE, which has 80% desert. Thus, innovation in sustainable technology is of the essence. Cohen’s visit to the UAE was constructive and a once-in-a-lifetime experience; she had not witnessed anything like that before. The imagery created by water bodies in the UAE was unique, and Cohen took this as a surreal challenge to capture this experience.
Courtesy: Leila Heller Gallery website
For Cohen, particularly fascinating was the Jubail Mangrove Park. The park looked lifeless when the water had dried, but with water flooding in, the park’s landscape and visuals were completely altered. The entire landscape popped to life. By capturing these water bodies, Cohen tries to create a profound and immersive experience for the audience. The artist aims to convey water’s soothing and therapeutic effects on the soul through the shared experience. Cohen is also collaborating with dArt NYC to create Bio-Resonant artworks. These works will allow the viewer to engage while using all of their five senses.
Love Letter by Luis Gispert, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery
Luis Gispert is currently showcasing his work, Love Letter at Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery. As a way to challenge himself and move out of his comfort zone of capturing photographs, Gispert decided to try his hand at painting.
Courtesy: Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery Website
After extensively working and making a name for himself in landscape photography, Gispert, in his recent work, displays his skill in painting. Love Letter captures a very personal and raw journey of the artist, which he wants to lay bare to his audience. It is his way of paying homage to the internal journeys of everyone and the tribulations each one of us eventually goes through.
Courtesy: Zidoun Bossyut Gallery Website
Gispert employs the imagery of vehicles as his medium to depict the constant movement. These images of vehicles are then juxtaposed with things that necessarily do not go together, to create a sense of hurriedness and panic formed due to existential angst. This is to communicate respite and take a step back from constant attempts to move forward. The artist tries to pause this constant urge to work and wants the viewer to observe what’s surrounding them. In an attempt to liberate its viewers, the works make the viewers sit behind the wheel and reflect. The interiors of the vehicles are a representation of what we hold dear in our internal space.
The Front Side Strikes the Most by Saher Nassar, Zawyeh Gallery
The Hegelian rationale for war stems from the colossal state project and how both morality and individuality play a very limited role in it. In this context, Hegel explains that the ethical sense of a soldier cannot be divorced from duty. The Front Side Strikes the Most by Saher Nassar presents the same dilemma. The exhibition explores the idea that warfare, even though destructive, is seen as ethical from the perspective of soldiers who are in front of the war.
The exhibition focuses on soldiers, not as objects of larger state apparatus, but as a subject in this narrative. It delves into a more observational outlook than a scientific one, keeping it open-ended. It does not try to shape the narrative by adding his views, but lays bare for the audience the inherent contradiction of warfare.
Courtesy: Zawyeh Gallery Website
The thread that connects this open-ended idea is that soldiers from either side of the war often consider themselves standing on the “right” side of history. The exhibit evokes the profound impact of indoctrination on establishing and shaping soldiers’ moral compass. The artist uses medium and backdrop for the audience, stands in direct contrast to the grave subject, and tries to make the art accessible and engaging.
Faces of Resilience by Roshanak Aminelahi, Ayyam Gallery
Historically, women have been depicted as secondary characters in the background or have been objects of the male gaze. It is the shackles of these dichotomies that Roshanak Aminelahi tries to break away from through her second solo exhibition, Faces of Resilience. Aminelahi’s expressionist work ranges from abstraction to figuration. The artist employs pointillist and color-blocking techniques. The works are often laced with allegory and symbols that revolve around social issues and wars.
Faces of Resilience is a work celebrating women who have endured immensely at the hands of patriarchy. These women are distinguished in their respective fields, coming from different backgrounds, generations, and continents. They have raised their voices against institutionalised racism, environmental injustice, and focused on reclaiming political spaces. The work showcases a commentary on this resilience and the willpower to go through it, regardless of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. In protest of spaces being inaccessible to women and women being almost invisible, if not fetishized, Aminelahi has decided to make the works faceless.
Courtesy: Ayyam Gallery Website
Although women are not shown with any physical traits based on which they can be objectified, they can very well be identified through their persona. It attempts to commemorate and show that women have presented themselves as potent challengers in a male-dominated world. The series also exhibits other works of the artist utilizing similar strokes of pointillist and color-blocking techniques.
Text by Shalini Passi
Image Courtesy: Leila Heller Gallery, Ayyam Gallery, Zawyeh Gallery, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery
Find more about the current Exhibitions at Dubai:
