Hayy Jameel presents the At the Edge of Land show featuring 18 artists. It delves into the relationships between landscapes and trade, encompassing interconnected geographies, resources, and commodities. Curated by Lucas Morin, a curator at Jameel Arts Centre, the exhibition will end on 13 April 2024.
It showcases artworks from the Art Jameel Collection; some exhibits are loans and new commissions by international creatives. Many of them are displaying their art in Saudi Arabia for the first time. The selection of artists and works traces the trade route on which Jeddah is situated: the maritime path that connects East Asia and Europe via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Photo: Mohamed Alaskandrani.
About the participants
Jananne Al-Ani (b. 1966, Kirkuk, Iraq) is an Irish-Iraqi artist, researcher, and lecturer using photography, film, and video in her work. Interested in the documentary tradition, she explores it through intimate recollections of absence and loss and more official accounts of historical events. Her practice also engages with the landscape of the Middle East, its archaeology, and visual representation.
Tarek Al-Ghoussein (1962–2022) was a Kuwaiti photographer, photojournalist, artist, and NYU Abu Dhabi Professor of Visual Arts. Through landscape photography, self-portraiture, and performance, he delved into such themes as land, belonging, nostalgia, and barriers.
Iosu Aramburu‘s (b. 1986, Lima, Peru) practice encompassing paintings, installations, and collaborations concentrates on modernity as an aesthetic, architectural, and philosophical paradigm. He explores abstraction and modernist architecture, employing its elements as a starting point.
Au Sow Yee (b. 1978, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), an artist living in Taipei (Taiwan), focuses on questioning, exploring, and expanding the relationship between images, image-making, historiography, politics, and power.
Artist Chihoi (b. 1977, Hong Kong) divides his time between Hong Kong and Taipei. He creates paintings, comics, illustrations, and publications. Hong Kong urban sceneries are a recurring motif in the artist’s poetic works that document the changes in his birthplace while evoking emotions and memories.
Bady Dalloul (b. 1986, Paris, France) is a Franco-Syrian artist based in Paris. His work deploys video, performance, drawing, writing, and using found objects. Dalloul’s art pieces intertwine historical events, personal facts, and fiction while exploring political, sociological, and historical themes.
Aref El Rayess (1928–2005) was a celebrated Lebanese painter and sculptor who also practised etching, collage, and tapestry. His work drew from his extensive travel: he toured Europe, North America, the Gulf, and Africa. In his abstract works, El Rayess reflected on the political struggles of his time and concentrated on humanity, identity, and nature, denouncing injustice and materialism.
Daniele Genadry (b. 1980, Baltimore, USA), who resides in Beirut (Lebanon), works with painting, photography, printing, and installation. Taking cues from her travels between Lebanon, Italy, and the USA, in her work, she explores distance, light, and movement as well as their influence on visual experiences. At the core of Genadry’s practice is the relationship between painting and photography.
Artist and writer Ho Rui An‘s (b. 1990, Singapore) work lies at the intersection of art, cinema, performance, and theory. He investigates the emergence, transmission, and disappearance of images within contexts of globalism and governance. The artist is known for his performances sifting through historical archives and contemporary visual culture to probe into the changing relations between image and power.
Hiwa K (b. 1975, Kurdistan, Iraq) is an artist, painter, and musician living in Berlin (Germany). His sculptures, videos, and performances weave together stories from his friends and family members with his biography. As an immigrant to Germany, the artist draws inspiration from personal memories to address current global crises (war, migration, and the effects of neoliberalism and colonialism).
Artist and filmmaker Hira Nabi (b. 1987, Lahore, Pakistan) uses moving images, text, photography, maps, printmaking, and archival research to examine the elements of contemporary reality with political insight and poetic intensity. She examines the local consequences of globalisation and environmental crisis, contrasting facts, inventive narrative, and lyrical imagery.
Courtesy of the artist and Foam Museum.
The main field of Indian artist Ranjit Kandalgaonkar‘s interest is invisible or ignored urbanisation processes. He utilises diverse art mediums, archival documents, and historical artefacts to document, represent, and critique urban flows.
Lala Rukh (1948–2017) was a renowned Pakistani teacher, women’s rights activist, and artist whose visual language blended calligraphic form, minimalism, and symbolic writing. She took cues from Indian classical music, so her creations, which included drawings and print-based works, incorporated many references to music and musical notations.
Sarker Protick (b. 1986, Dhaka, Bangladesh) is an artist and photographer living in his hometown. His work focuses on temporality, the materiality of time, and the metaphysical prospects of Light and Space.
Photo: Mohamed Alaskandrani.
Sim Chi Yin (b. 1978, Singapore) is an artist and photographer based between London (UK) and Beijing (China). In her practice, which involves photography, film, sound, text, archival material, and performative readings, she investigates issues related to history, memory, conflict, and migration.
You Khin (1947–2009) was a Cambodian architect and artist whose work focused on interactions among people. In his impressionistic paintings, Khin, who had to leave Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge evacuation of Phnom Penh, portrayed alienation and sadness following the Khmer Rouge.
Joar Songcuya is a Filipino marine engineer and artist from La Union (the Philippines). Before he started his art career, Songcuya worked onboard international commercial ships and visited 85 countries. His works document his life at sea, depicting marine landscapes, boats, and waves. The artist is interested in statelessness, migration, oceanography, engineering, marine ecology, and sea-based labour.
Zarina (Zarina Hashmi) (1937–2020) was an Indian-American artist and printmaker associated with the minimalist art movement. In her practice, she employed abstract and geometric forms to evoke a spiritual reaction from the spectator. Zarina’s drawings, prints, and sculptures explored the idea of home, distances, and trajectories influenced by her extensive travels.
To learn more about At the Edge of Land, please visit the show’s official web page.
You may also be interested in attending Toy World by Farah Al Qasimi and Sheher, Prakriti, Devi.
