Rasheed Abou-Alsamh

By : Rasheed Abou-Alsamh

A group of young Saudi contemporary artists is causing a sensation in the country and throughout the Middle East with their modern works, questioning some of the aspects of our society.

Gathered in art collective called “Edge of Arabia,” these 20 men and 18 women are producing some of the most modern and sophisticated works of art I have ever seen. Unlike the more traditional Saudi artists who only paint landscapes or abstract images, these young innovators use digital photography, painting and large installations to express themselves and engage the viewer.

Ajlan Gharem, a young Saudi who was born in Khamis Mushayt and now teaches mathematics at a public high school in Riyadh, recently made a small mosque completely from wire, with a minaret, which lights up in green lights at night. Faithful can come and pray, and there is an imam to lead the five prayers of the day.

“I think our minds try to find something to believe in. So I built a mosque as a cage,” said Gharem told BBC News. “Sometimes I get confused to say if I built a mosque as a cage or a cage as a mosque. The older generation has more beliefs than knowledge, and our generation has more knowledge than beliefs. So we’re trying to find beliefs that can be harmonized with our knowledge.”

Another impressive talent is Shaweesh, a young Riyadh street artist, who started out as a graffiti artist in 2009 and has expanded his horizons to digital art. He spray-painted the figure of the Saudi athlete Sarah Attar — who was one of the first Saudi women to compete in the Olympics in 2012 — on the walls in Riyadh. Shaweesh also made a small sculpture of a teacher who marked his life negatively, placing a bomb on his back.

“When I was in school, I drew very well, but the teacher came and said it was good, but I could not do that. My idea was to make a sculpture of the same person who would not let me draw and put a trigger on his back that could destroy him,” Shaweesh told BBC News. “I could not have done this sculpture 10 years ago. If I had done it at the time, it would have been a disaster. But now, people are more open to new ideas.”

Edge of Arabia was founded in 2003 by Saudi artists Ahmed Mater, Abdulnasser Gharem, and Briton Stephen Stapleton. The first major exhibition of the group was in 2008 in London and was a huge success. Then there were shows in Berlin (2010), Istanbul (2010), Dubai (2011), the Venice Biennale (2011), in Jeddah (2012) and London again in 2012.

The deans of this group are the sisters Shadia and Raja Alem, who are from Makkah, but live between Paris and Jeddah. They designed the Saudi pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale in 2011. In a huge warehouse, they hung a huge round mirror from the ceiling, whose edge met another circle on the floor, made of metal balls. On top of that circle they placed a black rectangle, made of stainless steel, standing on one its points. Upon all of this they projected various sounds and pictures.

Another very interesting member of the collective is Ahmed Mater, who was born in Abha. A provocative work of his is the photo series entitled “Magnetism,” showing a rectangular black magnet surrounded by metal shavings. It instantly reminds one of the Kaaba in Makkah, with the metal shavings pulled by the magnet field looking like the faithful circling the building.

To finance all this, the group has the support of several private entities.

Finally, there is the artist Abdulnasser Gharem, who makes large installations using objects found in the daily life of any Saudi, like a giant stamp (found in government offices), and the concrete blocks that surround government facilities and embassies, which became ubiquitous after the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the Kingdom from 2003 to 2007.

This group of artists is at the forefront of all that is avant-garde in the conceptual art world. With their piercing views of Saudi society, these young artists do not accept society as it is and keep asking “why?” I hope they can continue to grow and touch the lives of more Saudis.

The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in the Column section are their own and do not reflect RiyadhVision’s point-of-view.

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