jameel prize article

8/14/2019 Jameel Prize article

1/8

in focus

TheJameel Prize

It has been called the Islamic Turner, and answers the question, what could be better than one Jameel Gallery at Lon-dons Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The answer, clearly two; or rather, one gallery devoted to the old, and onebiennial prize and linked exhibition devoted to, as its curator Tim Stanley puts it, how the Islamic tradition can feed into

contemporary art. By Pdraig Belton

For the V&A, this is all a return to its roots. At its 1850sfounding, this museum would eventually grow into theworlds largest museum of decorative arts and designdrank heavily of the sprays of Islamic decoration, as aninspiration to modern design that was neither neo-clas-sical nor gothic revival. That indispensable Victorian de-signer Owen Jones - the prints and drawings gallery nowhosts a display noting his 200th birthday - returned fromthe Alhambra with notes urging that ornament stay trueto object and material. With his tessellated pavementsand mosaics, and as decorator of 1851s Crystal Palace,Jones proved a prime gure in 19th century British designreform. He was author of the Grammar of Ornament (the

rst design textbook), mentor of Christopher Dresser (Brit -ains rst industrial designer) -- and spread the lessons of his Alhambran study rmly within the South Kensingtonmuseums orbit, designing many of its spaces and associ-ating closely with its rst director, Henry Cole. Distilling thelessons of ancient Arabian, Turkish, Moresque and Persianornament for living Victorian ears, he summed these upwriting that true art consists of idealising, and not copy-ing, the forms of nature. This was classicism, the Grand

O A S I S

M A G A Z I N E

q u e n c h e s t h e m i n d

6


2/8

4 Tour gone wrong and ending on the wrong side of theMediterranean. Returning mediaeval knights might haveworked enormous intellectual transfer along Roman roads

home from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe,but their descendants in the 19th century museum choseless to engage the inhabitants of the region and more toexploit its antiquarian objects.

Now, however, the V&As prize circles back to repose the Victorian museums question, offering contemporary de-signers working within Islamic traditions opportunity toenter a debate not just about interaction between Islamicart and British, but against a fully international scope forcomingling. The exhibit, taking the theme of exchangeresolutely, will move from London in mid-September totour in the Middle East. It was made possible by a Saudibenefactor, Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, who in 2006contributed greatly to the Islamic Gallerys refurbishmentand renaming, for his late father.

Another circling back: the Jameel Gallery brandishes themuch-copied Ardabil Carpet, acquired for the V&A by theexertions of William Morris - the Pre-Raphaelite and Artsand Crafts innovator, who with his structured patterns andregard for the nature of fabrics clearly was learning thingsfrom Islamic methods of artistic textile production. Jameelproposed the prize roundabouts concurrent with the reo-pening of the gallery, as a nod both to the V&As stature

The Jameel Prize Winner: Afruz Amighis 1001 Pages


3/8

O A S I S

M A G A Z I N E

q u e n c h e s t h e m i n d

8

in focus

as the rst museum in the world systematically to collectIslamic art, and to its founders faith that there was muchto be learned from it towards reforming British design.

There is also, inescapably, the grappling with what itmeans to discuss Islam in Britain. The Victorians had theirconceptions of Islamic cultures; we have ours in the epochof British art (Saatchi, by the by, is of Baghdadi birth). Theexhibition release discloses an earnest aim to contributeto a broader debate about Islamic culture. Not to be self-consciously political, but the mere effort of showing theseobjects in a beautiful setting, makes its own point of theself-con dence of a civilisation that could produce them.

There is great beauty convened here. The short list boastsnine of a hundred entrants. There is Persian calligraphyfrom Reza Abedini carefully arranged into human forms,evoking the gures inner lives or culture. Hamra Abbas

subtly limns the vulnerability and urgency of the Muslimfaith, by writing us a letter I wanted to tell you my story inperson, but I do not like the weather in your country enti -tled Please do not step 3, an impossible stricture as thewords are placed between two rooms, on the oorboards.Windows and portals symbolically pervade the mashra- biyyat - latticed shutters - of Susan Hefunas turned wood;the incorporate an ana-gram) conceals interiority, and)mediates between two worlds something like the personaof Hellenic tragedy which constrain speech and render itpossible.

Hassan Hajjaj


4/8

Lebanese-Canadian Camille Zakharia offers photocol-laged Markings, paint on motorway asphalt reconstitutedto form mosaics. Owen Jones might have lauded: in ahunger for pattern dissassembling and creating worlds asan assertion to remain free - from medium, and mentallyfrom what it represents - this as one who has ed warand struggled to communicate in foreign tongues. It is a

cosmopolitan gathering; of the nine, only jeweller SevanBiaki and printmaker Khosrow Hassanzadeh work wholly in the countries of their birth.

Prizes, by custom, have winners; in this case, Afruz Amighis 1001 Pages(images on page 47). She has de-scribed her piece as creating an evocation of a certain ide-alisation of the mosque using shadow pieces created byhand-cuttings project from a suspended and illuminatedplastic sheet. It combines ethereal images of birds, whichdance alongside hooks and chains, icons of barbarism.

Working in diaspora like seven of the exhibits nine artists- of Iranian origins, trained and working in the New York of this past decade - she has spoken of the Islamic aestheticsensibility as being intuitive for her. Perhaps this is partof the resonance for her of shadows - intangible, a sortof physical analogue to memory. It is a dissolution bothof artwork and viewer. There is in her work an intimatedetachment, coming from juxtaposition of opposites - thedeeply personal, and at the same time public space of a mosque; chains alongside the birds; the blinded pea-cocks. She is quick to speak of Abrahamic and Su tra -ditions of God and humanitys attempt to escape out of darkness.

49

Hamra Abbass Loss of a Magni cent Story.


5/8

in focus

1001 pages and shadows each gesture halfway to anequal number of nights; Amighi as ahrazad, then, witha visual embeddedness of stories within stories and min-gling of narrator, character and audience. Asked aboutthe title, she responds it also bears much to do with herprocess of creation. I was in a pretty bad rut; I couldntbe in the studio: all I could do was read. I dont think I ab-sorbed maybe a fraction. It was an activity, like a sport.

Reaching a stage at last mentally ready for the tediouswork, for the hard labour, she cut pieces for two months,labouring over detail: every cut, every bird, every spe-cies was signi cant. She described the actual creationas hypnotic. The symbolism, the obscure reference, wasmy own alphabet (though she goes on to express delightin its resonance with the V&As curator, as well). She ndsher audiences experience her piece as a sacred space,a hush, a place of quiet contemplation, amidst a ghost-

ly atmosphere where darkness permits viewers to relaxin a way they could not in an exposed gallery, with oth-ers watching. It is an experience she felt elsewhere, andwished to pass on: You go in to a mosque in Iran, youtake off your shoes, and people are crying, sleeping. Youcould scream, you could feel however you want to feel, itsvery comforting. Thats what I was hoping for. She citesRumis parable of Chinese Art and Greek Art: The Chi-nese gures and images shimmeringly re ected / On theclear Greek walls. They lived there / Even more beautifully,and always / Changing in the light

And the effect of winning the prize? I cant lie, it provideda huge amount of motivation to keep working. Not just

nancially, but the psychological response. (As a work of art, it began in summer of 2008 with a ction: shednot created anything for months, and a mentor chivviedher along to complete the piece for a show. When it was

Khosrow Hassanzadehs prints (right) and Susan Hefunas wood artpiece . (left)


6/8

Susan Hefunas wood artpiece . (an ana-gram)


7/8

in focus

complete, Amighi recalls, I said to her Whens the show?the mentor confessed there was no show, Id just wantedto get you off your bum. She speaks warmly of meetingthe other entrants, calling it the prizes best aspect. She

dwells at length on Biakis jewelry (says Amighi, youshould wear it sitting in your throne) and the salon instal-lation of Moroccan-British artist Hassan Hajjaj (Withouteven thinking about it I would go and sit in that room. Wewould congregate there. Hassan is such a social connec-tor and that that room re ects his personality.)

Hajjajs Salon - hes used the title in previous installations,including one in Cardiff; clearly it is for him an evocative one- probes the invasion and absorption of Western brandsby traditional culture in an Islamic country. He permits theword Marrakitsch to slip his lips, and may winkingly alsobe showing how the Moroccan brand - an Islamic brand,at a push - has invaded and been absorbed by traditionalculture in Britain. (His own images, one could note, gracethe website of Londons Britpop band Blur.)

His installation seems to be a tea-spot, a back corner of a market, which has attracted the commercial detritus of traditional items, emblazoned with Western brand names- a Louis Vuitton Islamic veil, Coca-Cola labelled crates, in Arabic. He confesses to spending a great deal of time onhis frames; the notion of framing, and reframing, seemsat the centre of what he does. An omnipresent camel

gures as a microcosm of the Maghreb and East; andthe multinational, of Europe and the West. Asked of thein uence of an Islamic sensibility, he gestures as well to

the miniature tradition, to geometrical forms and mosaicrepetition.

If it all looks curiously authentic, its because it is; in creatingthe installation, he worked with artisans from Marrakesh.For the stool, I had to use a person who makes poufs.For the lamp, I got involved, made sketches and had thatmade by a local artisan; I enjoyed that aspect. How then,does he feel about Marrakeshs own new standing as aBritish brand, as a destination for mass tourism? Some-thing like this has plusses and minuses - it depends howyou look at it. On the plus side it allows people to go andlook. On the negative side there are more planes in theair, and the wrong sort of people who dont respect theculture. I asked if he thought the local culture would with -stand the onslaught. In history, people change due totime; it happens in every third world country. People de-sire what they think weve got; were trying to nd some -thing more spiritual by going to these places. It is, to the V&As founding query reopened with this prize exhibition,one peremptory reply. As this scion of the Great Exhibitionprepares with its riches to depart to the Middle East ontour, it is, also, unlikely to be the last.

Reza Abedini


8/8

our guide

Division Lines (2004-06) Camille Zakharia

jameel prize article

Documents