Dubai-based arts organisation Tashkeel offers the local creative community various facilities such as studio spaces; equipment and training for working with a variety of media and techniques; a programme of workshops, exhibitions and residencies, and an environment that facilitates dialogue between artists of different backgrounds. Tashkeel is showcasing the work of its members, and of artists who participated in workshops and exhibitions it hosted during the past year in its eighth annual summer exhibition “Made in Tashkeel 2016”.
The show celebrates the diversity of art expression and skills fostered by Tashkeel with works ranging from digital photography, sculpture, installations, comic books and laser-cut fashion wear to traditional art forms such as printmaking and painting. Participating artists include Afshan Daneshvar, Ammar Al Attar, Azim Al Ghussein, eL Seed, Eman Al Hashemi, Emma Pathare, Gail Reid, Harsheet Thukral, Jeff Scofield, Judy Shinnick, Kathryn Wilson, Kay Li, Khalid Mezaina, Manal Al Dowayan, Natalia Lasso, Saif Mhaisen, Sham Enbashi and Rowan El Atrache.
Wilson is well known for her oil paintings of the sea. But during the past year she has been experimenting with various technologies, and is showcasing a mixed media piece created from laser-cut cardboard that is inspired by her seascapes. Fashion designer Li has also made creative use of the laser cutter and 3D printer at Tashkeel to make dramatic patterns on a dress and a skirt from her “Silent Drama” collection.
Eighty One by Eman Al Hashemi, etching and relief print, 2016
Hashemi, Mezaina, Al Dowayan and Al Ghussein used the printmaking facilities at Tashkeel to express themselves. While Hashemi has used abstract patterns on her monochrome etching and relief print, the colourful patterns in Mezaina’s “Observations” series of screen-printed textiles are created from images of hand carts, birds, animals, people on the streets, shawarma stands and other sights seen in Deira, where he grew up. “Through representations of food culture, music and the community, I am doing a geographical pointing of the old Dubai that is familiar to me. This series is about looking back at memories and making new ones,” he says.
Al Dowayan also takes a walk down memory lane in “The Lake”, from her “I Will Never Forget” series. Her nostalgic composition, featuring prints on canvas and aluminium of a photograph she found in her late father’s archive, captures a moment from her childhood. Al Ghussein’s beautifully illustrated comic books are also based on the Emirati folk tale of Bu Darya that he heard in his childhood.
Al Attar and Enbashe are showing works created in the photography studio at Tashkeel. Al Attar’s piece, comprising a set of silver gelatin prints, is from his “Salah” series, which documents and contemplates the movements he makes during prayer. Enbashi’s carefully staged digital photographs from the series “In a World of One-Eyed Men”, look almost like classical paintings with a dramatic play of light, and an intriguing narrative, featuring a well-dressed man and a dismembered fish.
The show also includes a variety of paintings and drawings. Shinnick, who works from a studio at Tashkeel is displaying a series of stunning oil on linen portraits of people from her hometown in Ireland. “I come from a small fishing village, but I can see that urbanisation is gradually changing the way of life there, and a lot of the traditional crafts are being lost. I want to document what is left,” she says. The people she has painted include fishermen, the caretaker of the cemetery and a musician who is the one-man-band at local weddings. The artist is also working on a similar series featuring ordinary people in the UAE. In this show, she has displayed her portrait of Michael, a fisherman from her village, alongside a portrait of Abdul Karim, an Iranian fisherman she met on the Creekside in Deira.
Pathare’s oil on linen self-portrait, titled “Selfie”, is an interesting take on our current obsession with selfies. Tea addict Thukral has used tea tinted paper to create interesting ink drawings that speak about the idea of home, belonging and displacement, whereas Reid has used chalk and pencils on paper to compose a landscape that combines different areas of Dubai from the desert dunes to the flamingoes in the creek. Mhaisen’s oil on canvas painting of his friend Xeina, and Lasso’s evocative series of pastel and charcoal drawings of Colombian men also speak about the magic of traditional painting and drawing.
Daneshwar also likes to work with her hands. She has been working on her meditative “Nafas (breath)” series in her studio at Tashkeel. The artwork she is exhibiting features a white canvas covered with tiny pieces of white tracing paper that move ever so softly when you blow on them. “I have tried to create a visual representation of breathing. In today’s world people are so immersed in technology and the virtual space that they have stopped using their senses to enjoy the beauty of the real world around us. I began the ‘Breath’ series to show people, especially the younger generation that we should pay attention to these senses. I focused on breath because we breathe in and out about 25,000 times a day without even being conscious of it,” she says.
Fragments Series #2 by Harsheet Thukral, ink on tea tinted paper, 2015
Long-time Tashkeel member Scofield is presenting a set of sculptures or “totems” crafted from found materials such as wood blocks and copper wire. The show also includes a 3D calligraffiti work, “Life”, by street artist eL Seed, who developed this new direction in his work during a residency at Tashkeel, and Arabic typography works created by El Atrache at the Khatt Foundation Advanced Arabic Type Design workshop hosted by Tashkeel.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts-enthusiast based in Dubai.
“Made in Tashkeel 2016” will run at Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba, until September 1.
