The Third Line gallery’s closing show for this season, “Summer Show 2014” presents paintings, sculptures, installations and photographic works by artists Arwa Abouon, Ala Ebtekar, Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Golnaz Fathi, Hassan Hajjaj, Huda Lutfi, Laleh Khorramian, Pouran Jinchi, Rana Begum, Sara Naim and Rhea Karam.
The show features recent works by the artists, as well as some early works that offer interesting insights into the evolution of their artistic journeys.
Also on display for the first time in Dubai are artworks from special projects showcased by the gallery at prestigious international art fairs. The gallery is also hosting a variety of pop-up events during summer, including free weekly screenings of acclaimed international films.
Among the highlights of the show is a series of works by Laleh Khorramian from a project she created for the gallery’s inaugural participation at Art Basel last year. The New York-based Iranian artist is known for using animation, monotypes and drawings to create a whimsical parallel universe, through which she explores emotional states of consciousness and aspects of life that are normally invisible.
Her mixed media paintings in this show represent fragments of a science fiction film, “M-GOLIS”, which she plans to make.
The story is set on a foreign planet called M-GOLIS in the year 2202. The planet is ravaged by chemical waste, with the sparse population comprising prisoners who have been sentenced to live there and reverse the pollution by distributing fungal spores that decompose the toxic waste.
The film follows the journey of an inmate, Lieutenant Aurelio Swimm, whose consciousness has been altered by his extreme isolation and exposure to a toxic and increasingly hallucinogenic environment.
In a work, titled “Lt. Aurelio Swimm – Last image as space farmer”, Khorramian has used ink, oil paints, stones, animal bones, silk thread, a brightly painted kite, a light meter and other found objects to create a physical and mental portrait of this lost and lonely soul struggling to survive in a hostile world.
Other mixed media works, featuring strange creatures, machines and objects, offer insights into the creative process of the artist, while igniting the imagination of viewers to create their own narratives.
Also being exhibited for the first time in Dubai is “MegaForce”, a light box created by Ala Ebtekar. The Iranian artist who grew up in the United States incorporates elements of Western pop culture and Persian literature and art in his work.
In this piece, displayed by the gallery at Frieze London 2013, the artist has made ink drawings of illustrations from the pages of an ancient Persian manuscript on the back of a poster of a 1980’s American film. Turning on the light in the box results in a surreal superimposition of the inverted words and images from the poster on to a typically Persian background.
Rhea Karam’s “Wallscape series” from 2013 captures the simple beauty and geometry in our surroundings through a combination of photography and painting. Arwa Abouon’s photographic work focuses inwards on the beauty of her own spiritual journey.
On the other end of the time spectrum are two calligraphic paintings from 1994 by Pouran Jinchi. The simple compositions are seminal works by an artist who is now well-known for her innovative multimedia investigations of the relationship between words and forms through artworks based on significant literary works.
A 2008 work by Rana Begum, similarly throws light on the evolution of movement in her multifaceted aluminium sculptures.
Other early works include a 2008 installation, featuring synthetic resin masks by Egyptian artist Huda Lutfi; a signature portrait from 2000 by Hassan Hajjaj, with a frame made of children’s building blocks; a painting by Golnaz Fathi from 2008 marking her early experiments with colour; and Sara Naim’s playful “Beethoven Moonlight Sonata” series of photographs, capturing the reverberations caused by the powerful piece of music on the surface of a glass of milk.
Summer Show 2014 will run at The Third Line, Al Quoz until July 24.
CINEMA AKIL
In conjunction with the summer show, the gallery is also hosting a weekly pop-up cinema every Wednesday. The programme has been organised in collaboration with Cinema Akil, a platform that aims to bring quality films from across the world to audiences in Dubai. The free screenings, which began on June 18, will continue until July 16. The event begins at 9pm with short films and presentations by the gallery’s artists. And free popcorn is provided.
The next screening, on July 9, will be Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda’s acclaimed film, “Like Father, Like Son” (Soshite chichi ni naru).
The film, released in 2013 (rated PG) traces the story of two fathers as they deal with the realisation that their sons were mistakenly exchanged at birth. The final screening on July 16 is celebrated Indian director Satyajit Ray’s 1955 masterpiece “Pather Panchali” (Song of the Little Road).
The films will be shown with English subtitles. The programme and trailers of the films can be viewed on the gallery’s social media.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts enthusiast based in Dubai.
