Lebanese artists Charbel-joseph H. Boutros and Stéphanie Saadé’s joint exhibition in Dubai, titled “Intangible experiences, arrangements and manoeuvres”, is about presenting intangible phenomena, processes and feelings in the form of tangible reproductions, re-enactments, installations, performances and arrangements. “Our aim is to create a terrain of new experiences that challenges the conceptual, cultural, social and philosophical references of viewers,” says Amanda Abi Khalil, curator of the show.
Saadé is interested in cultural and psychological experiences and finds beauty and meaning in the most mundane objects and gestures. In her “Re-Enactment” series, she reproduces everyday objects and arrangements that catch her eye, presenting them in a new context to subtly reveal traces of personal experience and new layers of meaning in the objects.
For instance, her “Chandelier with Plum Blossom Energy Saving Lamp” is simply a lamp suspended from a damaged chandelier. “I saw this arrangement of a cheap made-in-China lamp and the classic chandelier found in most Lebanese homes in a house in Beirut. And I wanted to re-enact it because I was intrigued by the thought process behind its fabrication, which was done not with aesthetics in mind, but to deal with a daily necessity. However, in the gallery it has acquired a different meaning as a symbol of the conflicted relationship between cheap contemporary culture and the splendour of the past, between two different cultures and two different ways of making things,” Saadé says.
In another set of works, Saadé comments on socio-political issues through interventions on industrial materials. “Scarred object” features iron bars that were cut into equal segments and then welded together again. Here, the visible traces of welding and slight deformation of the bars become a metaphor for the scars of individual or collective trauma that remain forever, indicating that despite appearing whole, the individual or society remains fragmented after the trauma.
The Beirut-based artist, who has studied and worked in Paris, China and Switzerland, speaks about displacement and the difficulty of re-adaptation in a work called “Nostalgic Geography”. And, in “Suspended Horizon” she offers an outsider’s point of view about her country. The piece features a picture of a beautiful sunset, placed on wheels. “The experience of taking this beautiful view with you around the gallery is similar to the way the Lebanese hold on to a romantic, clichéd view of their country. This work is about the denial of reality,” Saadé says.
Boutros has a more conceptual approach. His work is based on performative arrangements and traces of impossible manoeuvres that explore phenomena such as darkness and light and express the uneasiness of existential and political realities. “I feel that the essential element of faith is missing from modern society. And this results in an intangible feeling of uneasiness and discomfort. My work is about manoeuvres that try to give a presence to the absence of faith, which is vital to our existence,” he says.
An example of this approach is “Neon enclosing its own light”, featuring an industrial neon tube covered with black paint. The work asks viewers to believe in the presence of the light they cannot see. Similarly, in “1 cubic cm of infinite darkness” all you see is a simple, white cube that could be a reference to 1960s’ minimalism. But the artist claims that the inside faces of the cube are covered with mirrors and that the one cubic centimetre of darkness in the void within the cube is reflected infinitely by the mirrors. “The philosophical questions this work poses about the darkness and its reflection are essentially about faith,” he says.
Boutros is well known for his “dystopic performative works”, featuring objects performing their own actions. An interesting example in this show is “Measuring the Measure”, featuring three rulers measuring each other. Through the intangible experience of measuring, the artist questions the way success or happiness is measured in contemporary society, and asks why the ruler that measures everything should not be measured. Another work is actually a performance by the sun. It features the words “Open your eyes, go out and stare at the sun” scorched by the sun on to newsprint, stolen from a newspaper office. The words in this layered narrative are a trace of the intangible experience of the sun writing. And they comment on the fact that the propaganda we see in the media is as blinding as staring at the Sun.
For Boutros, the simple act of mixing equal quantities of bottled water from Lebanon and Israel and inviting viewers to drink it becomes a political statement on the conflict regarding water between the two countries and of different viewpoints on the matter. And he is also exhibiting a stone that he picked from the forest near his home in Lebanon, which will be returned once the show concludes to the exact location where it was found. The artist now lives between Paris and Maastricht, and this stone from a place associated with his childhood and its return to its original context is a tangible reminder of the intangible experiences and influences that may or may not have changed him during his travels.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts enthusiast based in Dubai.
The show will run at Grey Noise, Al Quoz until October 3.