Reach Art, (potentially bad) wordplay on reaching out, was a literal attempt by me to reach out to expat artists in Jeddah. Look, the way I see it, you don’t learn anything until you step out of your comfort zone. You may be completely blind, feeling about in the dark to find footing, and you definitely could fall flat on your face. But you may also end up finding that light shining at the end of the tunnel. Eureka! Reach Art turned out to be a bit of both: falling flat + shining light. By falling flat I mean that …
Category: My events and exhibitions
Blog posts regarding the events I manage to organize and collaborations I end up being part of.
The Other Story Project–collaboration
The Other Story Project is a fascinating community project initiated by Fatima Al Banawi in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Here’s a bit more about Fatima Banawi herself: I find her and her work very inspirational. The focus of my own past community projects in Karachi has been to provide a platform for the stories and voices of women and children. And now, with my MA project I hope to reach a greater understanding of contemporary forms of narrative art, not to mention the interchangeability of mediums such as writing, painting, sculpting, performing etc. The Other Story Project also has another arm …
Experiment # 2: It’s what they whisper
My first tutorial left me feeling interested in how objects could spin a narrative. That week, I decided to experiment with water and glass paints to marble porcelain dishes and mugs and see what kind of art it would create. Here’s the video of the whole process: At that time I added the touches of gold simply because they felt right when I was creating the pieces. But later, I felt they reminded me of ‘Kintsugi’, the Japanese art of mending pottery using gold instead of throwing the broken pieces away. It kind of emphasizes the breakage and subsequent repair …
Experiment # 1: I capture the desert
I haven’t concretely written down my project proposal yet, but brainstorming and some research has yielded the following answers about what I am seem to be seeking: I want to build simultaneous narratives to explore the ‘slice of life’ story of an absent protagonist. I want my art to reflect the ‘stream of consciousness’ or ongoing story in the inner mind’. I want to unlock the narrative potential of everyday objects and materials, and their embedded cultural associations. I am inspired by the ongoing dialogue between art and the audience in this digital era, and the potential of the audience …
Exploring the Saudi Center for Fine Arts
Day two of our art gallery tour series found us on the doorstep of The Saudi Center for Fine Arts. Where Arbab al Heraf had been an amorphous concept, leaving us with little knowledge what to expect and then surprising us with hospitality, inclusiveness and an indiscriminate love for the artistic, SCFA was quite a bit more disciplined and exclusive. There, I made it sound horrible didn’t I? Well what can I say, it was a tad bit disappointing in a few ways. The art gallery section of it was glorious. Glass walls, two floors, literally papered with gorgeous abstracts …