Sharjah Art Foundation's March Project

New Article Submission

Thank you for your interest in Jadaliyya. We welcome all submissions. The most significant requirement is for Jadaliyya submissions to be analytically compelling and offer a perspective or argument that has not been covered at length either on Jadaliyya or elsewhere. Because of the volume of submissions, well-written pieces are prioritized. Length is flexible, 1000 to 2500 words is the average range. However, we will accept longer pieces. Once submitted, several members of the editorial committee will review your piece and one of them will inform you of the decision.
Author Details
Article Details
Select Countries
Select Keywords
Select Topics
Only RTF, Word, and Pages documents accepted.

Recommended image size: 762x800 px

Location of each image should be indicated in the text of the article via a square bracket caption that includes: (1) a description of the image; (2) the photographer/designer and source of the image. Please note we only use images you as the author have the right to use, which usually means those of your own creation or those published under Creative Commons. Alternatively, you need specific permission from the copyright holder.
Please read the Release Form and provide an electronic signature [your full name] below to confirm that you accept its terms
Required
Hyperlink words in your article if they refer to links on the internet. We encourage more, rather than less, links (try to avoid footnotes—embed them as hyperlinks if possible)

Article added successfully.

Pages Menu BETA
May 17, 2014 Other Countries!
[Bahraini artist Noor Al Bastaki re-presented the cultures of local communities in Sharjah and Bahrain through the space of the coffee shop. Image courtesy of Medrar TV.] [Bahraini artist Noor Al Bastaki re-presented the cultures of local communities in Sharjah and Bahrain through the space of the coffee shop. Image courtesy of Medrar TV.]

Sharjah Art Foundation's March Project

By : Medrar TV مدرار تي في

March Project

March - June 2014

Bait Al Shamsi, SAF Art Spaces

Sharjah, UAE

 

The March Project is a group exhibition, showcasing seven newly commissioned, site-specific artworks. The show is the result of an educational residency program for early career artists that the Sharjah Art Foundation launched for the first time at the end of 2013; it opened at SAF Art Spaces in parallel to the annual March Meeting. The residency program aims to offer artists opportunities to research, realize, and present site-specific works through a series of professional development courses, seminars, exhibitions, site visits, and talks led by art practitioners over several months. SAF director Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi curated the pilot program and resulting exhibition and invited seven artists enrolled in art programs in the UK, Egypt, and Bahrain to participate.

In her piece titled "Sawalef" (Tales), Noor Al Bastaki chose to create a dialogue between Sharjah and Bahrain, her home country, in an attempt to discover the similarities and differences between the two through conversations she held at coffee shops in both locations. Al Bastaki re-presents this dialogue through a video installation that is designed in the shape of a cafe.

UK-based artist Frank Harris created a fascinating installation titled "Spaceship Sharjah," which reflects the many faces making up the city through a number of camera obscuras and pinhole cameras.

In "Homeostasis," British artist Holly Hendry chose to comment on modern ventilation systems and their impact on a city`s architectural design.

Egyptian artist Ahmed Fouad Rageb followed a different approach in an untitled piece, playing the personal stories and views of SAF staff members through twenty radio transmitters installed in the foundation`s corridors.

Two additional Egyptian artists took part in the program: Nourine Shenawy and Eman Youniss. In her piece "Closed Letter," Shenawy explores the final thoughts that arise before one falls asleep. She first asked participants to document them then reproduced their responses on cardboard paper in what seems like a fully censored message when seen from a distance. Youniss chose to share bits and pieces from her childhood through "The Sacred Room," where she re-created the bedroom of her grandfather with all its details.

Finally, Brazilian artist Marcela Florido presented a series of large oil paintings inspired by the landscape of Sharjah.

This video documents the work of the seven artists and includes interviews with Al Bastaki, Rageb, and Harris, where they discuss the processes they followed in realizing their individual projects. 

                            [This video is produced by Medrar TV and is featured in partnership with Jadaliyya Culture.]       
Tags
Apr 4, 2014 Lebanon
Medrar TV مدرار تي في By :
Medrar TV مدرار تي في

Tamara Al-Samerai: Make Room For Me

Make Room For Me

An exhibition by Tamara Al-Samerai

21 January - 12 February 2014

Gypsum Gallery, Cairo

 

Kuwaiti artist Tamara Al-Samerai`s recent solo show is loosely inspired by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Al-Samerai engages with the book as a story about societal values that tackles notions of revenge, fear, love, jealousy, absence, and death while negotiating the boundary between adolescence and adulthood.

A sense of anxiety underlies much of the work: a pack of dogs run toward an unspecified object, a vacant chair, a solitary cactus, or an open laptop. Inanimate everyday objects seem to take on a life of their own in her work. In another series, a sequence of charcoal on canvas drawings resembles an action packed storyboard. At the center of each drawing, two androgynous girls are shown entangled in an intense encounter. 

Trained as a painter, Al-Samerai`s practice includes illustration, photography, animation, video, and installation, and her work has been presented in institutions worldwide. She lives and works in Beirut. 

                         [This video is produced by Medrar TV and is featured in partnership with Jadaliyya Culture.]