Musings in graffiti

Saudi Arabian artist Hussain Al Mohasen is well known in this region for his colourful expressionistic paintings, referencing Arabic popular culture and calligraphy. But his latest exhibition in Dubai marks a change in his style. Inspired by street art, the artist has swapped his brushes for spray paint, stencils and silk screen printing and experimented with new materials such as paper and wood to create his own brand of calligraphic graffiti.

"I believe that an artist must constantly challenge himself by working with new techniques and materials. I like street art because the vocabulary is simple and can be easily understood by everyone, yet it has a strong impact. I have carefully observed the graffiti in cities such as New York and Beirut and have tried to blend fine art, street art and Arabic calligraphy to develop my own unique style," he says.

Al Mohasen comes from the oasis town of Qatif, near Dammam, and this is reflected in the title of the show — I Love You Green.

"These are words from a poem by famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish that I like very much. My hometown lies in one of the biggest oases in the world and to me the colour green represents nature, peace, love, life and the Earth itself. The absence of green means that something necessary is missing," he says. "But I have also used many other bright colours because I wanted this series to be vibrant and colourful," he adds.

The artist takes inspiration from politics, poetry, literature, music and elements from everyday life to create witty and thought-provoking artworks that convey his message in true street-art style with just a few well chosen words or images.

For instance, a barely visible oil barrel in a silk screen print on paper, titled The Barrel, speaks volumes about the significance of oil, not only to his country, Saudi Arabia, and the region, but to the global economy and geopolitics.

In another piece, the repeated appearance of the number 9 alludes to the emergency number 999, provoking viewers to think about certain regions and countries that need help urgently, and the emergency situation of our planet itself in the face of the pollution and destruction caused by us.

In a set of simple works, Al Mohasen conveys a message of peace by presenting weapons and war machines in ways that make them look non-threatening and even beautiful. These include a colourful toy-like tank, warplane motifs on a pretty orange and green wall paper and a turquoise hand grenade that looks like a jug.

Al Mohasen's love for poetry, literature and music shines through in his work. Many of his artworks feature inspirational poems, songs and paragraphs about love, peace and respect for the environment written by well-known Middle Eastern literary figures such as Darwish, Syrian poet Adonis and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

In other works, he has used images of a famous Iraqi maqam singer as an allegorical reference to Iraqi oil and its influence on geopolitics. And Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali's signature figure of Handala, the refugee child, appears as a potent reminder of the suffering and struggle of dislocated and homeless people around the world.

Similarly, he has altered a well-known American image of a woman holding a beach ball. The painting titled Oil for Food shows her holding a tin of milk powder instead and speaks about the unequal distribution of food in the world and the suffering of those affected by famine and food scarcity.

The artist often uses familiar elements of everyday life in Saudi Arabia to humorously convey his opinions on political, cultural and social issues. "Value paid is not refundable" and "Closed for Prayer" — signs seen in shops — take on other meanings when seen out of context as graffiti.

The largest work in the exhibition is a triptych of three acrylic paintings intriguingly titled I Love Music. Each one features the moment when then US president George W. Bush was informed about the 9/11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center. The words stencilled beside the images are "You are the one that knows" and "I love music, poetry and my small garden".

"This was a moment that changed everything in our lives. The president was at a school, reading to little children, when his aides quietly informed him that the US was under attack. I wanted to represent that moment and everything that followed from different viewpoints," the artist says.

His experiments with wood include a piece composed of four wooden planks painted with symbols and messages about war, hunger and inequality. "I used wood from old packaging containers for this work and I arranged the four pieces to give a sense of movement and rhythm. I deliberately broke one of the pieces to create some empty space in the composition. I always leave some empty space in my artworks so that viewers can find themselves in that space," Al Mohasen says.

I Love You Green will run at XVA gallery, DIFC, until June 14.