Sheikh Sultan tours eminent Emirati artist’s exhibition

Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi visited on Saturday, the art exhibition “Luminous Letters,” by Emirati artist and calligrapher Mohammed Mandi, at the Sharjah Calligraphy Museum.

Upon his arrival, Sheikh Sultan was received by Sheikha Hoor Bint Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, President of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sheikha Nawar Bint Ahmed Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, Abdulrahman Bin Mohammad Bin Nasser Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention, Mohamed Obaid Al Zaabi, Chairman of Department of Protocol and Hospitality, and Manal Ataya, Director General of Sharjah Museums Authority.

The exhibition, which will run until Dec.4, celebrates the Emirati artist Mohammed Mandi and his creative works that were inspired by the Emirati environment between the past and the present. The art exhibition also displays sayings of Sheikh Sultan.

The Ruler of Sharjah toured the exhibition halls, listening to an explanation from Mandi, about the exhibited works, highlighting their artistic significance that reflected his vision and inspiration from national sayings and occasions, among other influences.

The exhibition conveys Mandi’s journey of passion for calligraphy and art through his teaching of calligraphy and the implementation of a number of works that testify to his achievements, including designing texts for the outer cover of the Emirati passport, and writings from the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

The exhibition will witness, throughout its duration, accompanying programmes and events, including a live virtual meeting with artist Mohammed Mandi.

In addition to various workshops on calligraphy and design. It is noteworthy that Mandi was born in 1953, and began his artistic career since the beginning of 1975.

The Sharjah Calligraphy Museum organises exhibitions of calligraphers and artists from all over the world every year.

This year’s exhibition is a continuation of the exhibitions it presents, along with a package of accompanying events.

Separately, Sheikh Sultan inaugurated on Saturday, the art exhibition “The Other Side of Silence” by Hrair Sarkissian in the Sharjah Art Foundation.

The exhibition, organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation in cooperation with Galerie Bonnier Constellation in Stockholm, and the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, the Netherlands, is the first investigative exhibition by Hrair Sarkissian and will run until Jan.30, 2022.

Sheikh Sultan toured the exhibition, where he listened to an explanation from Sarkissian about his works during the past fifteen years, which takes the visitor on a photographic journey to the squares of Aleppo, Latakia and Damascus, and through the skies over Palmyra and the snow-covered landscapes of contemporary Armenia.

The exhibition examines the histories of demise, the architecture of violence, and the possibilities of the photographic medium, and is based on two main commissions: a photographic installation entitled “Last Seen” (2018-2021) commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation and “Sweet and Sour” (2021-2022) commissioned by Bonnefantin.

Sarkissian stepped into the world of photography through his father’s photography studio, “Dream Color” in Damascus, and then traveled to Holland to study visual arts, where he continued analog photography, taking it as a main medium, and testing his capabilities through his tireless pursuit of elucidating the invisible narratives in conflicts.

The photographs that Sarkissian produced using a large-frame camera developed, and continued to produce throughout his life, embodying his preoccupation with the role of “chance” in capturing hidden narratives, as if he was an excavator and a storyteller at the same time.

In addition to his work on the use of photographic methods to evoke the scenes revealing historical trauma, his works draw on individual and collective memory, delving into stories that official records and sources cannot tell. Such methods allow the spectator, through pre-designed scenes, to think about the formal aspects of the image, and assess the possibilities of what lies beneath its surface.

The inauguration was attended by Sheikha Hoor, Sheikha Nawar, Al Owais, Al Zaabi and a number of officials and artists.

WAM