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| Landscape of the Mind IV 101.6 x 152.4 cm. Mixed media on paper. 2009. |
Athr Gallery
is proud to usher in the new year with renowned Saudi artist Manal Al-Dowayan’s
first solo exhibition in Saudi Arabia A
Journey of Belonging, introducing new work by the artist as well as seminal
work from her previous series. The exhibition explores the artist’s frequent
voyages into the past in search of understanding and mutual acceptance.
Photographer, visual poet, and artist Manal Al Dowayan is one of
the most recognizable and critically acclaimed of the new wave of Saudi
contemporary artists. She has
exhibited globally, from Belgium to Bahrain, and has been acquired by
collections such as the British Museum, Nadour, Barjeel and the Jordan National
Museum of Fine Art, amongst many others. Her show at Athr Gallery emphasizes
not only her profound achievement and success, but re-affirms the Jeddah
gallery’s commitment to supporting and showcasing the most innovative and
thoughtful art of the region.
With the intersecting of key works from the artist’s different series
under one roof, a pattern emerges, a common thread weaves itself through the
works, one that gradually alters and transforms but remains unbroken. A journey
comes to light. A Journey of Belonging allows the viewer to approach Al-Dowayan’s work from a new
perspective. There is a paradigm shift in focus, with controversial issues of
women’s rights and identity, normally associated with the artist’s work, fading
into the background, and the artist’s personal fears and obsessions coming to
the fore.
The artist was raised in a land whose modus operandi revolves
around the repulsion and dismissal of women. Specializing in photography, her
varied series consistently present meditations on the complex textures of a
paradoxically evolving and traditional society, along with a distinct,
deep-rooted sense of personal and collective history. Thus, the exhibited works
reveal a young woman’s obsession with preservation and remembrance, and
constitutes a fight against rejection and disappearance. They are an
exploration of ways to exist somewhere that doesn’t want you.
Featured series such as ‘Pointing To The Future’, ‘Look Beyond
The Veil’, ‘Landscapes Of The Mind’, ‘And We Had No Shared Dreams’ and ‘Blinded
By Tradition’ display Al Dowayan’s progression and creative evolution over the
years. Through these discrete series of works, Al Dowayan not only explores the
role of women in Saudi Arabia, but reflects upon a wider reality in which
gender equality is symptomatic of power hierarchies, religious dogmas,
interplays with foreign cultures and shifting domestic social attitudes. Whilst
her primary medium is photography, series such as ‘Point To The Future’ further
demonstrate how the artist amplifies her characteristically monochrome
compositions with lyrical visual language. Enriched by this poetic slant, the
added layers allow her to weave a rich tapestry of cultural and formal styles
that invite deeper consideration of the central themes.
Another recurring topic in Al Dowayan’s work is the relationship
of the individual to their environment. For instance, Al Dowayan explores
manifestations of progress and change in the physical textures of the country’s
geography in ‘Landscapes Of The Mind’, which uses various locations around the
country to frame deft, simple glyphs representing the self, and the
individual’s relationship with her surroundings. The artist places herself
amidst these symbols, relenting her hold upon her own identity and becoming
undefinable and ephemeral against monumental natural and urban settings.
Similarly, the series ‘We
Had No Shared Dreams’ is a
conversation between the inhabitant and the landscape in which she lives, but
to which she longs to belong. The inhabitant, like an abandoned child,
desperately seeks acceptance, but the city only exhales in response..
‘If I Forget You, Don’t Forget Me’
reflects on the profound shifts in Saudi society over the past fifty years,
documenting the rise of the oil industry through the individuals who were there
at the start of the oil boom. But in this series, Al Dowayan goes beyond a
narrative re-telling of contemporary social evolution and instead looks for her
own identity and self amidst the turbulent histories of immediately preceding
generations, hoping to discover amidst the plenitude of the past, clues and
possibilities for the uncertain future.
In her latest body of work, Al Dowayan continues to explore the
practice of preservation via one of the oldest and time-tested means of
documentation, language. In particular, Arabic, a language lauded for its
beauty and complexity. The artist adopts as a case study Abu Mansour
Al-Tha’alby Al-Naysaboury’s “Jurisprudence of a Language: The Secrets of
Arabic”, a 10th century Abassid tome that contains detailed
categorizations of thousands of Arabic words. In the process, she discovers
that what is not rendered useful, is actively erased over time, bringing her to
question even herself;
“In my fervour to document my present, am I contributing to a failed
formula?”
Aldowayan’s new work investigates what Nietzsche termed “active
forgetting” and is a warning against the act of labelling diverse collectives
that efface the singular, for by attempting to preserve by creating our own
version of history, we are in fact contributing to the erasure of others.
Al Dowayan’s work reacts vividly to the restrictions imposed upon
women in 21st century Saudi Arabia. This is powerfully evident in ‘A Journey Of
Belonging’. Athr Gallery have
selected works that show Al Dowayan’s evolution as an artist, as a Saudi woman
and as a lightening rod for sparks and flashes of progress and change within
the strictures of her environment. However,
ultimately, it gives a unique and candid perspective of the intense and
idiosyncratic relationship that exists between a woman and her homeland,
exploring feelings of alienation, belonging, identity, even self-doubt, but
above all, love.
A Journey of Belonging
Manal Al Dowayan Solo Exhibition in collaboration with Cuadro
Opening: Tuesday, 15th January, 2013
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Athr Gallery
Exhibition Dates:
16th January, 2013 - 15th February, 2013
Opening: Tuesday, 15th January, 2013
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Athr Gallery
Exhibition Dates:
16th January, 2013 - 15th February, 2013
رحلة الإنتماء
المعرض الشخصي لمنال الضويان بالتعاون مع كوادرو
الإفتتاح: ١٥ يناير ٢٠١٣
من الساعة السابعة و النصف مساءً إلى الساعة التاسعة ونصف مساءً
١٦ يناير - ١٥ فبراير ٢٠١٣
غاليري أثر, جدة
انّ التقاطع بين أعمال الفنانة الرئيسية والمختلفة الموجودة تحت سقف واحد، يظهر نمط واحد وهوالخيط المشترك بينها والذي ينسج نفسه بنفسه من خلال تلك الأعمال، وهو يتغّير تدريجّيا ويتحّول ولكن دون ان ينقطع. فالرحلة تؤدي إلى النور. و"رحلة الانتماء" تتيح للمشاهد أن يقارب عمل الضّويان من منظور جديد. هناك نقلة نوعية في نقاط التركيز، مع القضايا المثيرة للجدل لحقوق المرأة والهوية التي ترتبط عادة بعمل الفنانة فنجده يذوب في الخلفية، وكذلك مخاوف الفنانة الشخصية وهواجسها التي تتجّلى وتبرز إلى السطح.
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