NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery celebrates its ten-year anniversary (is it ten years already??) with a characteristically interesting exhibition, albeit one that’s a touch more experimental than usual. In Real Time (22 February to 9 June) is a literally dynamic show – over the course of three months the curators will be adding artists, and the artists and performers will add, change and subtract work.
So far the roster includes some impressive names. Gallery (and magpie) favourites Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian are joined by Chafa Ghaddar, Rana Begum, Haleh Redjaian, Moza Almatrooshi, Gözde Ilkin and Cristiana de Marchi.
The prime mover is of course The Art Gallery’s Executive Director Maya Allison (right), the exhibition’s chief curator. She offers a backgrounder in the form of a ‘letter of intent’ that asks some pertinent questions: “What do we need from a space for art in this particular moment, in this particular part of the world, in the UAE, in a university, in an academic gallery?” Her intention is that the artists, the visitors and the art gallery team essentially devise some answers, or at least some opinions – “I hope this exhibition allows for any number of responses,” she concludes.
The contribution from the artists is obvious – they can make and remake art, amending their presence over the course of the show. Some artworks start as no more than a statement of intent; some artists may just leave hints of a presence (“the artist was here, and may be back”). Maybe there will be some works that last only one day. And the roster may expand during the show: “the artist list will grow, if and when it seems right”. The Art Gallery’s Instagram account will be announcing such developments (“in real time”, naturally).
Much the same applies to the gallery team, particularly the curators: they can add more artists, reconfigure the space, expound and cajole. The exhibition is curated by Allison, with a ‘curatorial intervention’ by Duygu Demir (right); she arrived quite recently arrived but carries an impressive pedigree and an addressbook that has obviously contributed some of the participating artists.
Demir joined The Art Gallery as Curator towards the end of last year (with a side hustle as Research Assistant Professor of Art History at NYUAD) to support the gallery’s “commitment to exhibition-making as a mode of investigation”. She was most recently Assistant Professor of Art History at Sabancı University, a couple of hours outside downtown Istanbul; her CV also includes a stint as one of the founding members of the highly respected research-based Istanbul cultural institution SALT. She has obviously contributed substantially to the curatorial vision of In real Time; she’s expected to provide curatorial interventions, maybe even organise collaborations.
As for the visitors, their role may be more ephemeral: “this is an exhibition about visiting and revisiting, about being physically present in the space, with the traces left by artists who have been there, or hints of those who will be there …” But in fact two of the works will be made entirely by the community, and that could mean a contribution from you.
We like the idea of this show; it feels timely. “This exhibition emerged as a response to a sense of urgency around the real-time changes we are experiencing today,” says Allison. “Perhaps art can offer something different from the news, from the scroll, and yet not distract us or make us forget.”
Indeed. One of the interesting and perhaps unexpected results of the Covid pandemic was to force us to think about the way we live, to question past certainties and look for new paradigms. That’s true of art in general, too; after all, art almost always requires the interaction with others that was denied by the pandemic. So can we really return to business as usual? What’s the appropriate way to make art, and to show art?
Then there’s the seething geopolitical tension. Even before Gaza exploded and Russia invaded its neighbour, there were more than two dozen active conflict zones around the world. Faced with intransigent attitudes, so many guns, so much financial and political benefit to be made, what’s art for? Should art tell it like it is, or should it be conciliatory? What’s the point of trying to change hearts and minds if there seems to be no chance of change? Can art heal? Where’s the relevance?
And behind, above and beyond it all is the fact of climate change and the threat of climate catastrophe. With global warming increasing, with seas rising, with the Gulf Stream threatening to reverse, with so many interests vested in maxing out on hydrocarbons, what difference can art make? Or is art best reserved for the personal, to provide an outlet for the individual?
So many questions, perhaps more than there’s ever been for the artist or the curator. Or the exhibition visitor, for that matter. In such a world, maybe the best we can do is ask the questions, accept that change is good and right, and look for inspiration, comfort and companionship where we can find it.
In Real Time shows at NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery to 9 June, midday to 8pm (closed Mondays). Admission is free and open to all.
The artists (so far!):
Moza Almatrooshi An artist and pastry chef based between Sharjah and London. She describes her practice as one of looking at “narratives from ancient and contemporary mythologies in the Arabian Peninsula” as they relate to nation-building, which, in her work, “culminates in fictions and metaphors derived from regional food production practices and food politics.”
Rana Begum The work of the Bangladesh-born London-based artist draws from the visual language of architecture, minimalism, and Islamic design. Moving between traditional hand-made technologies and modern ones, her work consistently draws attention to the nuances of surfaces and light in the space around the visitor.
Chafa Ghaddar Born in Lebanon and based in Dubai, Chafa Ghaddar has built her practice around wall painting and surface finishing; in particular she explores the use of fresco as a contemporary mode of making. She works equally with murals, painting, drawing, photography, and mixed media.
Gözde İlkin Using mainly stitching, drawing, and painting as well as video and sound installations, the Istanbul-based artist transforms textiles from domestic environments into tools for memory and archives of their social processes and cultural contexts.
Sol LeWitt A leading figure in minimalism and conceptual art, LeWitt has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide from around 1965 until his death in 2007. His prolific two- and three-dimensional work ranges from wall drawings, photographs and hundreds of works on paper and extends to structures in the form of towers, pyramids, geometric forms, and progressions.
Cristiana de Marchi An Italian-Lebanese visual artist and writer now based in Dubai, she continuously makes and unmakes the relation between time, space and memory in her practice – textiles, embroidery, film and performance.
Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian In the trio’s art-making, production is performance; and performance is a collective action leading to dance, art, and politics. Their collaborative practice formed as early as 1997 in Tehran; the artists have resided in the UAE since 2009, In essence they are investigating a model of how to collaborate, translating it into multiple forms which often evolve around artists and people from different walks of life. Through this, they explore the creation of a self-sustaining creative life; how to build an aesthetic and undermine it; how to be politically acute and humorous, generous and eccentric.
Haleh Redjaian Redjaian’s practice is grounded in geometry, with an acute awareness of negative space on the page and in the gallery. Her works on paper, textiles, murals, and spatial thread installations are ordered by structures and systems, while also embracing irregularities and deviations; they create rhythmic surfaces and spaces of reflection. Haleh Redjaian lives and works in Berlin.
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