A ramble through SB9 with the artists - March 2009
In true SB9 non-prescriptive fashion, ChinarTree presents a selection of some of the most interesting artists from the exhibition entitled, ‘Provisions for the Future.’
Following a somewhat unstructured approach, we interviewed individual artists on the morning of the Biennial opening, allowing them to introduce their selected works. The following are excerpts from those discussions along with some of the other highlights.
Firoz Mahmud (fig 2*) - from Bangladesh, living in Tokyo - presents ‘Halycon Tarp,’ a cross media installation.
“These first images are taken from miniatures of Emperor Lakshman who is famous for conquering the Bangla region. I took the original image and transferred it to a computerized digital image and made it pixilated. I wanted to express it could go out of the frame with these fluid borders. With the Bengal tigers, I put marks on their foreheads and drew around the eyes to protect them, like our mothers used to do to us. So I am taking care of them, protecting them from spiritual harm and making them able to see their bright future.”
Simryn Gill – Places nine monochrome spheres of various sizes on the floor, made up of pages from ‘the collected works of Mahatma Gandhi.’ With the only work in the Biennial saying ‘Please touch,’ the viewer was invited to interact with the installation and thus become a part of it.
Lani Maestro (fig 3*) – Showed an installation of ‘vitrine structures’ using books placed side by side, encased in glass. The pages, left open, were covered in delicate charcoal wisps, as if smoke swept – resembling intimate body parts or ghostly shadows.
Giuseppe Moscatello – from Italy, living in Sharjah – presents ‘Noor (Light)’ a mixed media installation.
“This is a reflection of the local culture, the local people in Sharjah. The main lifestyle of people takes place inside closed spaces such as the house, the mosque, the office and the car. Inside they live well but outside is chaotic, it can be hell. In fact if you go close to the installation you can feel the heat – this material produces heat. I also covered the glass with tinting as this is commonly used here to protect from the heat but also the gaze of other people.”
Nida Sinnokrot (fig 10*) – This artist created a large sculptural installation of two mechanical tractor arms raised to the sky, as if in prayer. Conceptualised in a Palestinian context, the work evoked a sense of beauty and fragility juxtaposed with aggression and destruction.
Karin Sander – ‘Kugelbahn’ was an amusing installation consisting of a shiny metal ball running down the sides of the Sharjah art Museum. Every now and then whilst looking at the other exhibits, one would notice the ball passing spectators by, like a giant children’s toy.
Jose Luis Martinat (fig 5*) – from Peru, living in Sweden – presents ‘The Commissioned Drawing Seri
“I wanted a different way of presenting drawings that would protect them and also give a more deathly vision, so I chose to show them through a magnifying glass. I asked artists working on the streets of Lima to make different portraits of me, first a normal one and then depicting my death. I’m very interested in death and the deconstruction of pictures. I was interested in how the backgrounds of the artists would influence them visualizing my death. For example the Catholic religion is very influential in Peru and can be very dramatic in showing punishment and violence. In Sweden they never show violence.”
Hiroyuki Masayama – This artist took two darkrooms and filled them with L.E.D. light boxes which were recreations of Caspar David Friedrich’s works, created in the 19th century and subsequently burnt in 1931. The unique display method gave the detailed landscapes a haunting, ethereal quality and made one think of the meeting of past and present.
Amir Fallah (fig 4*) - Takes trinkets, plants, photographs and figurines and mounts them on platforms to create luminescent versions of the traditional ‘still-life’ set-up. These psychedelic paintings and towers seem to be reflections of the fabricated versus authentic nature of emerging urban landscapes.
Samira Badran – Palestinian artist, living in Spain presents - ’Have a Pleasant stay!’ a mixed media turnstile installation.
“The work has to do with checkpoints that are in Palestine, exactly from Ramallah to Jerusalem. There’s a very big illegal border full of doors and bars – you have to pass one then another, then another. It’s like a thick tissue of obstacles. So this is a metaphor reflecting the situation inside the occupied territories. It’s disorientating, like a prison inside a prison. You can also hear the friction of the metal from above.”
Hala Elkoussy (fig 9*) - Converted her entire room into a type of collector’s haven. By covering it, wall-to-wall in personal photographs, paintings and blackboards, an environment of comforting familiarity and an overwhelming frenzy was created.
Nika Oblak and Primoz Novak (fig 11*) - Gave us a humorous and quirky video of themselves trapped inside a box, punching and kicking at the walls. The innovative use of custom made software and a pneumatic system allowed the box to actually protrude in the direction of the movement.
Reem Al Ghaith (fig 12*) – Emirati artist, living in the UAE - presents ‘Dubai: What’s Left of Her Land?’
“To me this is one of the famous pieces I’ve done because I got to experiment with the structure of it and use the whole room given to me by the Biennial. The concept is about the land of Dubai, towards one end is Sharjah and towards another is Abu Dhabi. The white areas are all the maps, showing the fragmentation that is happening – it is feeding into the land and taking away from it. The words show the voice of the people, which is clean and pure and the end-product of the construction is always clean and perfect. So I blended this with the messiness of the workers.”
Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen – A solitary red neon sign periodically flashes ‘Inshallah’ against plain white walls. With this one word and particular use of medium, Larsen sums up cultural outlook, sentiment and aesthetic impressions of Sharjah.
*All images, fig 1-12, available at: http://www.chinartree.com/gallery/sharjahbienniale/flash.html
The Sharjah Biennial 9 takes place in various locations across Sharjah from 19th March - 16th May 2009. Artists and works covered above were all part of the ‘Provisions for the Future’ exhibition in the Sharjah Art Museum.
