• Home

Art attack

Abu Dhabi Art this year is a must-see fair as its exhibits have the potential to change one’s perspective on life

AUS$55,000 canon. It doesn’t work, but it is pretty. It is made of cut mirrors and coloured glass by Mehdi Nabavi, the Iranian contemporary artist, being the latest to join his arsenal of large missile sculptures. Just like Nabavi’s other “weapons”, Canon is an obvious work of art: the pretty colours, with delicately dancing reflections and scintillating surfaces, are a sharp contrast with the destructive meaning of this object.

Presented by Ayyam Gallery of Dubai, Canon is one of those eye-grabbing artworks that fill the space of Abu Dhabi Art fair (ADA) this year that goes on until today (November 7-10) at Manarat and UAE Pavilion on Saadiyat island.

With more contemporary and rather ingenious artworks than ever, the exhibition this year has plenty for the eye to feast on. Right at the entrance of the exhibition hall, Kerlin Gallery of Dublin (Ireland) is presenting a solo exhibition of Liam Gillick, a large sculptural installation, created specially for ADA 2012.

Born in England in 1964, Gillick is one of the most prominent representatives of the development of conceptual art and one of the most influential artists of our time.

His industrial looking sculpture, “Progressive Stream, Devised Production Structure”, is actually a lot simpler, gentler and more harmonious than it sounds. It comprises two large and colourful rectangular structures in aluminium and Plexiglas, which activate a play of light and reflection.

The arrangement of colour and space in the first structure refers to the very particular light, colour and space of the Middle East, while the openness, permeability and transparency of the second structure responds to the current era of cultural production in the region.

There is also a text element to it, a sentence in Arabic calligraphy written on the back wall, reading: “The doors to the administration building have been left open”. The meaning refers to an ongoing “conversation” between the artist and the audience on how redundant sites of economic and cultural production still hold the potential for renewal wherever there is the openness to embrace new ideas and new possibilities.

Italy’s Galleria Continua has brought several international artists from the West and the Orient, each standing out with highly individualistic artworks.

“I do not want to make sculpture about shape... I would like to make sculpture about belief, or passion, or experience outside the material problems,” said Anish Kapoor, referring to his Untitled dark green mirror.

Made of fibreglass and paint, the 150cm perfectly round bowl oozes with mystery and the fascination created by the reflective surface, which plays with the idea of duality — earth/sky, substance/spirit, light/dark, visible/invisible, masculine/feminine and conscious/unconscious.

Michelangelo Pistoletto is as much a showman as he is an artist. If he were here, he would take a large piece of silver mirror and break it in front of the audience. He would then take each broken piece and place it on a black mirror, thus creating a series of elliptic forms in order to recall the cyclical dimension of time.

Pistoletto is not here, but his series of seven art pieces created just like this are. Measuring about 180cm high and 115cm wide, each of the “Black and Light” mirror works is framed in gilded wood.

Some art critics argue that China’s contemporary art scene has failed to reach the limelight simply because it tried to copy the West. Well, the Tina Keng gallery with branches in Taipei and Beijing is here to prove otherwise. Its choice of presenting Zhang Hongtu’s Coca Cola bottles and Mc Donald’s take away boxes is simply inspiring.

“These are the exact shape and size of the Coca Cola bottles, but they are made of traditional Chinese blue porcelain. This motif of small children comes from our old customs, when young married couples were presented with small porcelain objects with the same painting, symbolising prosperity and good life,” explained Shelly Wu, director of the gallery.

The six-pack of “Kakou-Kele” even has fitting and removable caps. “Mao Dang Lao”, the Mc Donald containers, represent the fries box, the hamburger box and even the plastic knife and fork, except that they are all made in cast bronze and beautifully decorated with Chinese motifs.

London’s Waterhouse and Dodd gallery has returned to ADA this year with quite a few surprises. From afar, the two paintings of Patrick Hughes look like any other oil painting presented in a contemporary style. At closer viewing, though, they prove to be a quite clever optical illusion, as they suddenly pop out of the canvas, become 3D paintings!

“World Within World” and “Kinaesthetic Information” are oil paintings of board constructions. His work is full of irony, where the parts of the picture which seem farthest away are actually physically the nearest. By creating a world solidified into perspective, he makes pictures that come alive before our eyes. In the myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor makes a stone woman, whom Aphrodite brings to life as Galatea. Hughes makes wooden lumps of space and viewers bring them to life by looking at them. It is sculpted painting, solid space.

In short, ADA is a must! Art connoisseur or not, there are artworks here that have the potential to change one’s perspective on life. The fair will conclude tonight, at 10 pm. — silvia@khaleejtimes.com