DUBAI: Here are five highlights from ‘Gracefulness of Daily Life’ at Ziddoun Bossuyt in Dubai.
Halla Bint Khalid
This non-selling group show, which runs until June 8, consists of work by artists coming out of Gharem Studio in Riyadh, a non-profit organization founded by one of the Kingdom’s most celebrated artists, Abdulnasser Gharem, and co-owned by Halla Bint Khalid, also an artist. According to the show brochure, Bint Khalid uses her work to “pose questions, encourage self-awareness and challenge limiting societal norms.” This drawing, “Domestication,” comes from her series “In the Fine Print,” which, the brochure states, “attempts to shine a light on daily issues that have been normalized by the patriarchal narrative (and that) ultimately dehumanize, oppress, and limit every member of the family.”
Sumayah Fallatah
The Alkhobar-born, Riyadh-based photographer uses her work to explore “themes such as race and its representation in the Arab world. She also delves into her cultural identity as a third-generation Saudi Arabian-Nigerian, examining her family’s migration history and the integration of Saudi culture with their Nigerian identity.” The series to which these images belong, “Say Mon Dawo II”(Till We Return II) “reconstructs a long history of Hausa migration to Saudi Arabia due to colonial impact and the desire to protect their Islamic identity” and “embodies characters from various phases of the migratory assimilation.”
Abdulnasser Gharem
As well as being the founder of his eponymous studio, Gharem is also co-founder of the seminal social enterprise Edge of Arabia. Much of his work is informed by his time as an army officer, and he often uses rubber stamps of the kind used for administrative paperwork around the world as a tool, as in this piece, “Caged Humanity,” created in 2022. In the press release for this show, Gharem expresses his hope that it will prove “studios are places through which you discover the intelligence of cities. Artists strive to rationalize the world of their daily lives, constantly looking towards the future through imaginative eyes.”
Aljan Gharem
Abdulnasser’s younger brother has also attracted international acclaim. The installation pictured here, “Paradise Has Many Gates,” won the Jameel Prize in 2021, and was exhibited at the Vancouver Biennale in 2018. It is a mosque made of steel tubes and chicken wires. As such, it “immediately provokes anxiety,” the brochure states, “as it (recalls) the architecture of border fences and detention centers.” It continues: “For Gharem it is a broader metaphor for Islamophobia and the prison of identity — hundreds of thousands of Muslims are imprisoned for their beliefs worldwide — and for the dangers of religious ideology.”
Haitham Alsharif
The Riyadh-born photographer’s work focuses on “documenting the social shift in Saudi Arabia and observing the new changes and conversations that are held in his community.” His series “The Social Shift,” from which this image — “Jawaher” — is taken, is “based on ethnographic observations and conversations with individuals and communities … telling stories about subjects changing in Saudi Arabia, including … self-representation and expression, lifestyle, occupation, and more.”
