Waheeda Malullah: ‘A Villager’s Day Out’

Waheeda Malullah: ‘A Villager’s Day Out’

by Samia Sultagi

Investigating Images

At the world renown and must-see 2013 Venice Biennale indicative of global themes and interests in the world of art, is the collection of photographs by an emerging female Bahrainian artist entitled 'A Villager's Day Out'. The colorful, scenic, and creative images with an underlying sense of cynicism. The pictures document women wearing a black abaya touring the big city of Manama in Bahrain; allowing for cultural discourse within the vibrant snapshots. The backdrop of playful colors and urban settings concurrently integrate and disconnect the abaya/hijab. The artist demonstrates a clear knowledge of know how to apply the lens rendering the printed image with a unique sense of humor, color, and composition as she creates a verbal dialogue through imagery. The audience can decide the extent of such the visual meaning which is what makes the collection a success. The collection does not have to be interpreted on an intellectual, political nor social basis, it can literally be about pretty-ness, plain and simple.

On an emotional perspective, the outing seems colorfully dispiriting as the girls are illustrated in isolation and solitude; the veiled female is both connected and disconnected with the environment around her. The taboo of the hijab is presented differently than the typical outlook on the veil. The discourse bring the conflict between tradition and modernization and the identity of women within it to lighty; women in limbo between two worlds: tradition VS modernism. The black silhouette is given a sense of identity by objects and space: woman with balloons, woman next to colored wall, woman in tunnel, woman on the seaside… The abaya in Bahrain is ambiguously and indeterminately able to associate with the city, the contemporary global lifestyle.

A Type of Feminist Intervention

If the images are to be read as a type of feminist identity in the Muslim world, Waheeda’s interpretation is not aggressive. The fact that the artist is a muhajabeh Muslim Arab can also alter judgement, making the pictures appear less hostile and more forthcoming. Her so-called 'bias' positioning can both connect physically and ideologically to the world she chooses to dialogue with. If the artist was, for instance, a non-Muslim European, the discourse could be translated differently. The abaya and hijab are a part of a tense discussion that leans towards taboo than acceptance.

If we look to famous female and feminist art historians, such as Griselda Pollock, author of Vision and Difference, they would encourage the reading of the images as a type of artistic intervention into the social-political environment requesting a new form of dialogue between the traditional representation of feminine and the new ideologies in which Arab women define themselves. Waheeda, it would seem includes economic concerns to the mix. Bahrain is developing due to economic transformations which by default the 'progress' becomes more and more identified with Western ideologies. The big city is not a random background to the village girl but selected with a conscious intention, a conscious friction. The artist’s images are a type of moment of reflection that ask the viewer to consider how the global world alters the conditions of Mulsim women.

Though current articles about Arab women and the hijab have become more and more common as westerners explore the female conditions in the Muslim world; they either chose to understand the circumstances that have led to the veiling, whether agreeable or not, or reject the condition as a male empowerment and female deprivation. Their opinions tend to be fed by cultural prejudices or misguided references which in itself establish a confused conclusion on the veil perception.

There are those, like Mariam Williams author of ‘Veiled Meanings’ in National Catholic Reporter: Women Today, who choose to understand the ideology of veiled Muslim women in America and their practice as a reflection of feminism. According to Williams, there are women in America who consciously choice to wear the veil has proven to be a form of female empowerment, even within Western culture. Stewart Motha’s article ‘Veiled Women and the Affect of Religion in Democracy’ discusses how the hijab troubled feminism and secularism in Europe. Motha presents the different socio-political reactions governments and institutions have responded to the veil. The articles, if anything, affirm the different views of what the veil represents to western women and the interpretation of what it means to feminism.

Initiatives by women from the same context and milieu make the topic easier to tolerate, receive, and recognize; and maybe create a platform a more publically accessible debate. How will traditional women integrate into a modernizing Arab world? How will they have to, if actually necessary, transform in order to conform to the new identity? Will the new socio-economic changes adapt to them? Waheeda successfully puts into question the role and identity of women of religion and faith in the new global condition.

About Waheeda: 

Waheeda Malullah creatively and conceptually plays with video, photography, installation and performance in her desire to explore issues of gender and tradition that at times brings her own identity into question. She can even be depicted in her own work. Waheeda was born 1978, lives and works in Bahrain. She studied Advertising and Marketing at the Riam Institute in Bahrain and currently works as graphic designer at Bahrain University. Her work is supported by Al Riwaq Art Space. She has participated in many local and international exhibitions; and her work can be found in the collections of the Institut du Monde Arabe and the British Museum. She is considered to be one of Bahrain's up and coming young artists setting a new stage for the country's contemporary art scene.

Other Artworks: 

Bibliography:

1. 'Bahrain Participates in the Venice Biennale for the first time this June' in artBahrain (website). http://artbahrain.org/web/?p=4649 [last accessed at 17:00 on 24/10/2013] 
2. Delfina Foundation (website). http://delfinafoundation.com/in-residence/waheeda-malullah/tag/past/filter/practice_photography/ [last accessed at 18:58 on 24/10/2013] 
3. Minimalist, the. 'An archive of inspiration, negotiating the world through artistic intervention' in 5 Cents a Pound (online). http://5centsapound.tumblr.com/post/53128821734/waheeda-malullah-a-villagers-day-out-a [last accessed at 19:04 on 24/10/2013] 
4. Picone, Gabriella. 'In Anticipation of Missing Something: the Pavilions of Angola, Bahrain and the Holy See' in ArtSlant (online). http://www.artslant.com/ew/articles/show/36221 [last accessed at 19:08 on 24/10/2013] 
5. Sand, Olivia. 'Venice Biennale 2013' in Asian Art Newspaper (online). http://www.asianartnewspaper.com/article/venice-biennale-2013 [last accessed at 19:10 on 24/10/2013] 
6. Smith, Silvia. 'Venice Biennale hosts largest ever Arab presence' in BBC (online). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23664730 [last accessed at 19:07 on 24/10/2013] 
7. 'Waheeda Maloullah' in ISCP (online). 
8. http://www.iscp-nyc.org/artists/alumni-profiles/1101/1158.html [last accessed at 19:06 on 24/10/2013]

Mark Manders: Material as Language

by Samia Sultagi

“I don't often show my work in the public domain, rather in museums where people choose to go to see art. But since 1991 I always test a work that I've just finished in a supermarket. I just imagine a new work there and I check if it can survive where it doesn't have the label of an artwork. It is just a thing that someone placed in a supermarket. Now I am sure that all of my works can stand in that environment”. - Mark Manders

Manders, Mark. 2010-11. Mind Study. Wood, painted ceramic, painted canvas, iron. 170x240x500 cm. Zeno X Gallery and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

First Impression:

Manders, Mark. 2012-13. Working Table (detail). 

If the name Mark Manders is unfamiliar, then we're in the same boat. The artist came to my attention only two months ago at the Rietveld Pavilion in the Giardini of Venice. Walking into the exhibition I realized, if not confirmed, my ignorance in the contemporary Dutch art scene.  The space was packed with a picture happy frenzy audience snapping shots at every single angle of the visually aesthetic works. There is a je-ne-sais-quoi about his sculptures and installations that just make you want to join the crowd in the photo fashion. Before even reading titles and descriptions, Manders' work calls for a 'how pretty' response that a audience greatly appreciates. Then, of course, every viewer feels creative and inspired as the pictures look like artwork themselves- merit to the art maker, not the amateur photographer. They will be the new iphone wallpaper that can make one feel intellectually sophisticated; especially when bragging to friends about the art experience/ privilege. 

I generally find it hard to appreciate contemporary art because I feel my typical response is either 'I can do that', which totally demeans the artistic value, or 'huh?', when the intentions are blurred by insufficient iconography or meaning. In compensation to that scenario the works are accompanied by endlessly long descriptions that bore you after two lines, ending in bla bla bla that you cannot even remember. Manders is different to that situation. At the functional architectural space designed by Rietveld himself, the exhibited works require the reading last, as a confirmation or expansion on the enigmatic. His 23 years of fame are confirmed by curator Lorenzo Benedetti's selection of Manders out of the 82 proposals for the exhibition. He did good by his choice. The works have revived and reaffirmed contemporary Dutch art. 

Manders, Mark. 2013. Composition with Blue. Wood, painted wood, painted epoxy. 23 x 33,5 x 13,5 cm

The Analysis:

Manders, Mark. 2012-3. Head Studies. Zeo X Gallery and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. 

Manders' coherent oeuvre is composed of installations and works in a type of monumental representation within 'a spatial and temporal dimension'. The sculptures speak a language hidden within the materiality. Human figures are combined with geometric shapes to create aesthetically visual representations that articulate separation and isolation as they are inserted within architectural forms, a type of cityscape of high-rise buildings. The identity of man in nature, the urban environment. The perfectly sculpted faces look like porcelain dolls of ideal beauty of a European stereotype. The body is detached by found materials, raw wood, bronze, and architectural pieces and secluded into its sliver of a space. Further examination of the materials, nothing appears as it is. Materials represent other materials: clay looks like bronze, bronze looks like wood, and epoxy looks like clay.

Manders, Mark. 2010. Composition with Short Verticles. Wood, 

painted wood, painted epoxy. 42 x 49 x 74.5. Private Collection, London.

The carefully constructed sculptural pieces compose a poetic language of identity. The city is made of forms with blurred characteristics that frame and build around the human body that struggles for a habitat within the structure. What initially appears beautiful and picturesque actually articulates a type of devastation. Manders in 1986 was quoted for saying he identifies his investigations as 'self portrait as building'. The layers speak of features within the human psyche. The nature of man is a complex stratum of diverse and intricate fusion of elements that communicate identity. Nothing is what is appears to be: the facade is deceiving.

Manders oeuvre is visually pleasing with a hidden complex content, a type of map of one's own identity, buried within the materials, the layers. No one is perfect, with features of ideal beauty, but split by an accumulation and depositing of substance and matter. Each individual is a unique sculpture of random collection. The micro depiction represents the macro of the community, city, culture and global world of universal portrayal of man's search for self. 

Working Table

Manders, Mark. 2012-13. Working Table. Epoxy, wood, canvas, iron, paper. 368x142x225. Zeno X Gallery

Of the works exhibited, the personally preferred sculpture would be Working Table for various intentions and motivations. Art may have a universal identity, or at least one that can articulate something to a viewer. Each with their own baggage creates an intended meaning through what is visually perceived. There is no doubt some understandings will be limited to 'how pretty' postcard send to grandma written 'Greetings from Venice'. 

The monumental Working Table is a larger than life sculpture where the sliced human head is wedged by an iron bands that hold the layers of wood, clay, epoxy, canvas and paper together. The piece sits on tables that look like they were temporarily 'borrowed' from a nearby school. The asymmetrical composition's imbalance looks like it is about to tilt over any second, hopefully while the photo-happy viewer is out of harms way. This sort of randomness of assembly is actually what makes the work appealing. The unplanned nature of man who consciously aims to free himself from within the isolated complex world of the daily in search, in struggle, for identity. Manders' materiality speaks a language; one of  a phenomenon that appears to be global as the transnational urbanization of cities consumes individuality for the sake of conformation. 

Mark Manders by Cedric Verhelst

Other works by Mark Manders:

Clay Figure with Iron Chair. 2009

 Drawing with Vanishing Point. 1998. 

Ramble Room Chair. 2010.

Room with Chairs and Factory. 2003-08

For more exhibition images: artsy.net/DutchPavilion

For a video of the exhibition: blip.tv/vernissagetv/mark-manders-at-venice-art-biennale-2013-6597927

For other images of Manders' art: www.markmanders.org

Bibliography

1. Baltic , Gateshead. ‘Mark Manders’ in Frienze (online). Issue 100. June-Aug, 2006. www.frieze.com/issue/review/mark_manders/ [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:02]
2. ‘Biography’ in Mark Manders (official website). www.markmanders.org/ [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 22:57]
3. Chan, Audrey. ‘Artists at Work: Mark Manders’ in Afteral (online). 07 Dec. 2010. www.afterall.org/online/artists-at-work-mark-manders [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:05]
4. ‘Dutch Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale’ in Artsy (online). http://artsy.net/DutchPavilion [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:14]
5. Johnson, Alvin, and Hall, J.M. Kaplan. ‘Public Art Fund Talks at The New School: Mark Manders’ at The New School. Tishman Auditorium lecture. 02 October 2013. www.events.newschool.edu/event/public_art_fund_talks_at_the_new_school_mark_manders#.UlkZEdK-2So [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:09]
6. ‘Mark Manders at the Venice Art Biennale 2013’ in Blip TV (online). Film. http://blip.tv/vernissagetv/mark-manders-at-venice-art-biennale-2013-6597927 [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:2018]
7. ‘Mark Manders: Room with a Broken Sentence’ in Venice Biennale (official website). Dutch pavilion page. http://www.venicebiennale.nl/ [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:12]
8. ‘Mark Manders (at) the Dutch Pavilion. Venice Biennale’ in Cura Magazine (online). http://www.curamagazine.com/?p=9089 [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:18]
9. Singer, Reid. ‘The Best Venice Biennale 2013: Artwork You Haven’t Heard About’ in Flavor Wire (online). 14 June 2013. http://flavorwire.com/397779/the-best-venice-biennale-2013-artwork-you-havent-heard-about/ [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:16]
10. Spilman, Rick. ‘Figureheads – Galveston’s Tall Ship Elissa, the Living Figurehead and the Yellow Rose’in old Salt Blog (online). 07 Oct., 2012. http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2012/10/figureheads-galvestons-tall-ship-elissa-the-living-figurehead-and-the-yellow-rose/ [last visited 17 Oct. 2013, 00:36]
11. Trevisani, Luca. ‘Mark Maders’ in Mousse Magazine online. Mousee Magazine and Publishing. www.moussemagazine.it/articolo.mm?lang=it&id=51 [last visited 16 Oct. 2013, 23:00]

The Victory: an Arabian Mythological Heroine

Fig. 1 Haji, Mariam. 2013. The Victory. Charcoal, graphite, pastel, pigment and varnish on paper. 800x270cm. June-November 2013, Biennale, Venice.

The Victory: Arab Heroine in Western Mythology

by Samia Sultagi

Fig. 2 Haji, Mariam. 2013. The Victory (detail 1).

Entering the Bahrain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, a slight feeling of disorientation occurs being overwhelmed by an 8 meter long black and white drawing entitled The Victory (Fig. 1). It stands alone in the first private section at the entrance of the nation’s exhibition space. The rendering of a heroic figure leading a group of horses brings flashbacks of Greek and Roman depictions of mythological stories or heroic chronicles of battles. Looking closer the narrative begins to transform. The central figure (Fig. 2) is a woman; a type of Jean d’Arc but without all the armor. The drapery covering her body and parts of her hair that frame her oriental featured face, reiterating the monochromatic color scheme and bringing the audience's focus back to Bahrain. The observer, overwhelmed by her unlocking gaze, perceives more and more the work as it comes to life. Instead of the typical two minute walk through, the drawing calls for more simply because of the dual role of western classicism and Arabic features. The association calls for curiosity. Two personalities come to mind; the artist is either a European who lived in the Middle East or the opposite. Reading the name next to the wall at the entrance of the space ‘Mariam Haji’ confirms the Arab with the western education scenario. Haji, a name to never be mistaken with any other region nor religion. Ironically a very male association with for such a powerful feminist character. There is more to The Victory than meets the eye.

Fig. 3 Haji, Mariam. 2013. The Victory (detail 2)..

Haji not only places the female heroine central stage, she plays with history, humor and irony. No doubt talent is an aspect of aesthetic success. The details are what make the work unique. It does not require an artistic or visually critical mind to see the cleverness of Haji. The female figure leading horses into battle in a state of hysteria is riding a donkey (Fig. 3). Flashbacks of Picasso’s studies of Guernica (Fig. 6) or Leonardo da Vinci’s studies for Battle of Aughiari (Fig. 5) and Roaring Horse are bound up in the twisting sketches and renderings of the horses that seem to attack in all direction framing the central female figure. No doubt Arabian horses represent the pride and privilege of the Arab elite. It is the donkey that is associated with the common man, the farmer, Bedouin, and villager. The audience will have to manage with symbolism to understand artistic intentionality of the narrative of the underdog, the unexpected hero.

 Fig. 4 Regnault, Henri. 1868. Automedon With the Horses of Achilles. Oil on canvas. 

315 x 329 cm (124 x 129 1/2 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

At the pavilion’s main entrance site a stack of exhibit catalogues. Within the pages include the biography of the artist and description of The Victory; a story of identity and mortality. Bahrain and Haji create a unique harmonious discourse of identity, one of a nation in search of self after independence from British colonialism over thirty years ago and the other in search of individual inner persona. Haji studied both in Scotland and in Australia bringing new forms of representation to her artistic mind. Her use of historical references and western stereotypes express her personal inner conflicts. The catalogue refers the source of inspiration from the painting Automendon with the Horses of Achilles (Fig. 4) by the French artist Henri Regnault in 1868. A dual association is created by the artwork and artist. Regnault depicts the mythological characters of the two divine horses of Achilles, Xanoth and Balios, being tamed by Automendon, the groom. Haji, in this case, replaces Automendon as the female figure leading a many more horses forward. Regnault, a fine horsemen, was considered to be the up and coming artist of France who tragically died in the Franco-Persian war which in itself establishes a deeper association between Regnault and Haji and Europe and the Middle East. Beyond the formal choices the artist made in applying Regnault’s work, the historical reference and account also incorporate a uniqueness to the overall perception of the work.

Fig. 5 Da Vinci, Leonardo. 1503-04. Study of horses for the Battle of Anghiari. Paper. 19.6 x 30.8 cm. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, London, UK

It was Martin Kemp who wrote Equal Excellences in 1987 that ‘every painter paints himself’. The nature of the artist is rendered within the works as a psychoanalytical approach to understanding artistic works. The autobiographical drawing iconographically reaches out to two diverse audiences that perhaps, in the end, the actual viewer is isolated into one of similar milieu; associated with the new confused Arab youth captive of opposing cultures and characteristics between Arab institutions and Western globalization. Haji speaks to her peers who, like her, are lost in the Arab identity struggle as they desire and strive to become a part of the ‘developed’ world, the West.

Fig. 6 Picasso, Pablo. 1937. Study V (for Guernica). MOMA, NYC.

Haji is one of the three artists presented in Bahrain’s debut exhibition at the Biennale. Waheeba Malullah and Camille Zakharia works are articulated through photography and collages. Curator Melissa Enders-Bahia, under the patronage of the Minister of Culture of Bahrain, selected works that transmit the national artistic art scene and social concerns as an aspect of the new comer expression within the intentionality of aspiring to be associated with the global contemporary art world.  The Victory is one of many works on display at the Bahrain pavilion at the 2013 Biennale of Venice. Some spectators may not have entered, other may have given the work the two minute walk through, and some may have taken the time or at least read the posh catalogue. Haji and co. may not even represent the actual art scene of Bahrain, as identified by Enders-Bahia and the Ministry; but the works merit a closer look, a closer understanding of the innovative contemporary art emerging from an unexpected or unpredicted artistic Arab art source. The Victory may or may not be formally appreciated but the work deserve an additional glance, if anything for the new desire to renovate Arab identity and relate to the emerging regional crisis young artists are facing as they desire to transform.

Useful links:

For more information on Mariam Haji, visit her website: www.mariamhaji.com

For more information on the Pavilion of Bahrain at the 2013 Biennale of Venice, visit website: http://venicebiennale2013.ideologicalguide.com/pavilion/bahrain/

Bibliography:

Amaya-Akkermans, Arie. ‘The Nation From Center to Margin’ in The Venice Biennale 2013: Ideological Guide (online). http://venicebiennale2013.ideologicalguide.com/pavilion/bahrain/ [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:36]

‘Bahrain Participates in the Venice Biennale for the first time this June’ in ArtBahrain in Spotlight. May 30, 2013. artbahrain.org/web/?p=4649 [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:29]

Haji, Mariam. ‘About’ in Mariam Haji (online website). www.mariamhaji.com/about.php [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:12]

Kemp, M., 1987. ‘‘‘Equal Excellences’’: Lomazzo and the explanation of individual style in the visual arts’, Renaissance Studies, pp. 1–26

‘Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE @ Venice Biennial 2013’ in Gulf Art Guide (online). http://gulfartguide.com/kuwait-bahrain-and-uae-venice-biennial-2013/ [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:30]

‘Lorenzo Tel Reviews Arab Participation in The Venice Biennale’ in Venice Internship (Online). 02 October, 2013. uaepavilion.wordpress.com/tag/bahrain/ [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:24]

Muller, Nat. ‘Aesthetics of Prudence and Distraction? The Venice Biennale Arab Pavilions, part two’ in The Majallah. 25 July, 2013. www.majalla.com/eng/2013/07/article55243703 [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:21]

Munden, Daniel. ‘Bahraini artists 'victims of bias' in Gulf Daily News (online). January 31, 2009 www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=241643 [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:15]

‘Padiglione del Regno del Bahrain’ in ArteGo (online). 01/06/2013. [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:15] www.arte.go.it/eventi/press/p_0175.htm#.Ullsw9K-2Sp [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:15]

Smee, Sebastian. ‘The fire in their eyes was dying: The divine in Regnault’s fearful horses’ in The Boston Globe (online). August 3, 2010. www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/08/03/sebastian_smee_looks_at_automedon_with_the_horses_of_achilles_by_henri_regnault/ [last accessed 16/10/2013, 16:00]