Artists from India recently spent a month in the UAE amid the peaceful dunes in Liwa, travelling to museums and heritage sites in Sharjah, Dubai and Al Ain — all this and more while residing at Abu Dhabi Art Hub’s Musaffah campus. They have produced breathtaking art that was on display at Abu Dhabi Art Hub all of December.
Artists Jayanta Khan, Madhu Venugopalan, Mahmood Ahmad, K.R. Santhanakrishnan and Devi Seetharam explored their unique UAE experience through new works produced during their monthlong stay as residents in the capital.
Among the artworks, the notable ones are Delhi-based Mahmood Ahmad’s large nature paintings with intricate details achieved using knife on wet acrylic — arresting its flow in a million ways to create breathtaking abstract landscapes. K.R. Santhanakrishnan’s signature works capture more than just colourful doors from Tamil Nadu and Madhu’s works feature cradles that are symbolic of attachment and detachment.
Jayanta Khan’s works produced at the art hub are a collage of abstract desert features that force one to look at art with new eyes. Khan’s work were vastly different from most of the contemporary works on show this season. The artist predominantly uses oils and seems to have got inspired by the bright yellow hue of the Liwa dunes. Devi Seetharam gets behind the Abaya to find why clothes weave a unique arabesque tradition.
Kochi-born-and-based Madhu Venugopalan presents a series of cradles in his works. “It is a continuation of my ongoing series — of objects that are detached and suspended at the same time. Cradle is just one of the images that explains this phenomenon,” says the artist.
His works in Abu Dhabi are also influenced by objects and forms from the ancient Arab heritage that he came across at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum housed in the Shaikh Hasher Al Maktoum Home in Dubai’s Shindagha Heritage Area. “Some ancient objects, especially pots and handicraft, that I chanced upon here has become one with other images I had been following in my art process previously,” Venugopalan says.
Venugopalan’s new works produced here will now be a part of an ongoing collateral show at the Kochi-Muzrish Biennale. The exhibition in Kochi has a unique theme that says “Malayalam is not a language... but the land itself”.
The India Art Month is supported by the Indian Embassy in the UAE.
“Indian artists in the UAE, like all other Indians in different walks of the life in the UAE, contribute to enriching the quality of life here through their active participation. They bring creativity and with it a fresh interpretation of what they see and experience around them. They bring with them artistic sensibilities, traditions and techniques nurtured by an old and rich civilisation. At the same time they are influenced by the deep-rooted culture and practices as well as the dynamism of the UAE. This interaction manifests itself in the work of Indian artists in UAE which contributes to enhanced understanding between our people in a very spontaneous and direct manner,” says T.P. Seetharam, Indian Ambassador to the UAE.
Art is a butterfly
Mahmood Ahmad’s art offers a unique perspective to nature. “My art journey began early. During childhood I translated my feelings into portraits. The visages expressing joy or sorrow, screaming with pain and anger, or just smiling enigmatically were expressions of my own inner turmoil and emotions. But having grown up close to the Jamia campus that has a lush forest right in the middle of the capital city [New Delhi] I learnt to turn away human miseries to nature’s wild beauty,” says Ahmad.
This fine arts graduate from Jamia Millia has made large canvases during his residency in Abu Dhabi. They are waves that are layers of bright acrylic paints — an abstract but deeply inspired form from nature.
“I would spend hours in the forest collecting caterpillars. It was my hobby to watch them become butterflies. The fragile wet wings harden upon emerging from the pupae and the butterfly would eventually fly off giving me immense joy. Metaphorically speaking, art is like a butterfly emerging from a pupae. The pupae here is our soul. My works reflect my encounter with mother nature and my true nature. My paintings — both abstract and figurative — are my emotions that liberate my inner self,” says the artist.
Opening new doors
For the past 18 years K.R.Santhanakrishnan has been painting doors on canvases.
“I know and believe that a door speaks volumes. It can either be wide open and inviting you in with warmth and happiness or it can be closed and hiding a million secrets. Doors can say things that humans cannot. As a typical south Indian artist from Tamil Nadu, I believe in treasuring the heritage and culture that our ancestors built,” says Santhanakrishnan.
The artist believes that doors“tells us about the past. The voices that echo in the rooms inspire me to focus on the doors that hold it within the four walls. Doors are the first vital aspect of a house. Some of my doors open to inner courtyards that have tulsi plants and some are closed ones with huge locks with weathered house numbers and once-colourful advertisements. Through these I want to depict the lives of the people living behind these doors. Most of my doors are not from the cities but from the rural homes were I grew up,” says the artist.
Soot-covered wooden doors with saffron and turmeric powder markings fascinate Santhanakrishnan more than the “boring” fancy stained-glass doors.
“The style of doors here in the UAE is similar to the doors in North India. I have done a painting based on it during the residency. I was attracted by the colours in the UAE flag so I have painted a door along with the flag. Arabic scriptures look like art and, fascinated by it, I have used it in my painting’s wall. I am inspired by the doors here and in future I plan to do some of my works based on Abu Dhabi doors,” says Santhanakrishnan.
Behind the abaya
Thiruvanthapuram-born Devi Seetharam, the only woman artist in the show, weaves clothes into her artworks and believes that what you wear is representative of the civilisation you belong to. “As an artist new to the UAE, I have portrayed my curiosity and fascination with the abaya. It’s colour, texture, flow and mystery are portrayed as well as the pride in which it is worn,” says the artist.
Abu Dhabi Art Hub
With Abu Dhabi’s mega-museums in the pipeline, the capital is fast catching up with community building for the city’s home-grown artistic talent. Abu Dhabi Art Hub (ADAH), which opened in 2012, is addressing that need.
Ahmad Saleh Al Yafei, the founder and owner of ADAH, turned a-not-so noticeable building in the industrial Musaffah area into Abu Dhabi’s first live-work space for artists. It houses residency programmes, studio spaces and related activities. The campus is complete with adjoining apartments, a coffee shop and an art supplies store.
ADAH has launched various resident artists, including the Saudi artist Nouf Al Semari and the Uzbek painter of traditional scenes from around the region, Alim Adilov to mention a few. Abu Dhabi Art Hub is situated in Musaffah, off Street 7. The art hub provides opportunities to exhibit and to take part in forthcoming residencies.
Known as artist B’lu, Archana R. D. is a freelance writer based in Dubai. She is also a student of global art business with the Sotheby’s.
