Ayyam Gallery Dubai (DIFC) presents We’ll Build This City on Art and Love, a solo exhibition of mixed media works by Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin.
In We’ll Build This City on Art and Love the roles of women in Arab society remain central for the artist, however, moving away from the individual Amin further reflects upon a variety of social maladies, ranging from child marriage in war-affected areas to the marginalisation of the Bedoun in Kuwait, and the moral and material ramifications of stalled “dream” construction projects such as Silk City.
In the combining of various media, the use of bright pink and red, tongue-in-cheek imagery, and a sense of whimsy, Amin’s canvases are vivacious even while approaching subject matter of a serious or delicate nature. In We’ll Build This City on Art and Love the artist employs materials as diverse as wood, reclaimed photographs, and Braille; the materials imbued with their own set of histories and tactile possibilities come together to insert new complexity into Amin’s chosen artistic themes. Authors long admired by Amin, including Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani and British author Lewis Carroll, are among several influences found in these visual motifs.
Works such as Piece of the Pie: Who Stole the Tarts?, for example, comment both on the mismanaged state of political affairs in the Arab world, as well as the topsy-turvy nature of modern life in general. The painting depicts a young woman clad in a dress and red heels, her face is masked as is customary for many of Amin’s heroines, she holds a finger up to her lips, and in her other hand holds a pie. While men bicker and fight over the largest piece of the pie, like Alice from Alice in Wonderland the young woman grows tall until finally attaining an omnipresence of sorts. In this work Amin’s protagonist functions as a coquette in addition to being the one who towers over a cast of men, this second representation is perhaps Amin’s nod to matriarchal society or a certain social soft power.
Unique to this exhibition are sombre palimpsest works that bring together significant landmarks from Kuwaiti history, photographic remnants, and charcoal drawings. The build up of layers in the collage works prompts viewers to question the past in relation to the present, to imagine the future as related to the immediate.
In covering a range of social issues, referring often to turbulent times and to dark subject matter, in We’ll Build This City on Art and Love Amin’s message is ultimately that of hope. Her central concern being how best to build sustainable relationships, societies, and systems so that the legacy we leave behind is that of strength instead of fracture or stagnation.
-Ayyam Gallery Dubai (DIFC)
Image: © Shurooq Amin
Courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery
