29 August 2013
Many artworks that I have seen mostly express either the personality of the artist or an experience that they have gone through. The Venice Biennale is where artists seek to exhibit their work, because once you make it here, you can make it anywhere. So, when being chosen to feature in greatest art fair in the world, would the artist express himself or herself or the current issue that is happening in his or her own country?
Most artists chose to express their own experiences such as Turkey. As for the Kingdom of Bahrain, they chose a theme, which is called “In A World of Your Own”, where most of it focuses on the importance of identity.
“The Victory” by Mariam Haji is an 8×5 meters drawing where she expresses her conflicts on gender and expectations. The artwork show the artist herself riding on a horse while leading a pack of horses. The piece shows how people view Arab women in the fact that we still cannot work, be independent or even drive a car. She shows that we can do it and we broke the stereotypical image that the people think about us and how we live our life. She shows that we are leaders, we can lead an army and no one can say anything about it.
“A Villager’s Day Out” is a series of photographs expressing Waheeda Malullah feelings toward those who assume that the Abbaya is blocking the women from accomplishing anything. The photographs show the artist herself wearing the Abbaya and being playful, smoking hookah; where most people think that it is frowned upon in the Arab world to do these things.
Both works toy with the same theme but are projected in different ways. Sending a message to the world about women, whether they are Muslims. Christians or Atheists, that they can do whatever they set their mind to it and nothing will stop them from achieving it.
