Purva Grover’s book SHE turned into art in Slava Noor curated show
Transformation by Zumrud Zeynalli.
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
Purva Grover is a best-selling author, international journalist and editor, TEDx Speaker, award-winning playwright, stage director, published poetess, spoken word artist and creative entrepreneur. She has authored three books: The trees told me so; It was the year 2020; and SHE, her latest effort.
SHE has been turned into works of art in a creative dialogue between the book and eight artists. To run till March 30 at the Lobby Lounge, Dusit Thani Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road, the exhibition aims to celebrate women through visual art, inspired by Grover’s book. Eight women from different backgrounds are showcasing their work that reflects their personal stories and day to day experience of being a woman. It is a collaboration between literature and art and is curated by Slava Noor, Editor of Arte & Lusso art magazine. Artists have had the full freedom to interpret their favourite stories or quotes from the book, through their personal styles and preferred media.
Says Grover: “Both literature and art allow us to explore everything, having the sheer capacity to build the future, and inspire old and young minds. In other words, they shape civilisations. “Whilst I continue to tell stories to and talk to one and all on how to bring about a change through our own small ways, in this exhibition we combine colours and words and tell stories of womanhood.” “Becoming successful as an emerging female artist,” Noor says, “could be quite a challenge and I wanted to create a platform for women that would help both to showcase their work and also learn how to take it to the next level. This exhibition aims to create a sense of community which we achieve by holding regular meetings and ideas exchange.”
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Arte & Lusso also hosted the talk “How to make it as a creative woman in Dubai” on March 13, relating to the subject. It included discussions with the artists. Deepa Gopal, Dubai based artist of Indian origin said: “We women are “emotional nomads” who steer through different situations, adopting and adapting to the changes around us. “SHE is a reminder of that change and the change-bearers, the sufferers and the consolers, the belief and the trust that we hold for one another and the strength we share and impart. SHE is every one of us.”
Other participating artists include UK-born, UAE-based artist Samantha Lomas, aka The Sassy Crayon, who has spent several years travelling, living in, and embracing the cultures of South East Asia and Australia; Snehita Gehlot (India), who believes “Art means experimenting fearlessly”; self-taught artist Abda Fayyaz from Pakistan, whose work is the reflection of the constant changes and transformations that take place within and around us; Zumrud Zeynalli, from Azerbaijan-UK, who blends Eastern and Western cultures in her art that is also largely inspired by childhood fairy tales; Poonam Chaturvedi (India), who is based out of Dubai since 2007 and been part of many major local, regional, and international exhibitions; Fatema Fakhruddin (India), who lives in the UAE and is known for her predominant use of bright and colourful acrylics, oils and other mediums and Christine Dessa (India), who has called Dubai her home for the last 25+ years, and incorporates realism juxtaposed against fantasy as a means of storytelling through watercolour portraits and acrylics.
The book, besides meaning to unite creative women and support each other, also explores what it is like being a woman. “Being a woman is like running on a treadmill, you don’t “quite” get anywhere … In these pages, we celebrate waxing woes and bad hair days, we tick the boxes and break the rules, and we apologise for getting old and feel guilty when promoted at work,” it says.
Born and brought up in “colourful-chaotic India”, Grover writes in English and founder-editor of The Indian Trumpet, a quarterly digital magazine for Indian expats. She works as assistant editor in a UAE national daily. As director-founder of the Dubai Written Words Society, she conducts fortnightly writing workshops, author interaction events and open mic sessions for the writing fraternity in UAE. In 2020, she wrote and directed a play for Short + Sweet Theatre Sharjah, the largest festival of 10-minute plays in the world, and won the Best Writer and Overall production Award. In 2017, she was selected as one of the five local writers in the UAE to write and direct a theatrical production for a show called Queens of Drama, which focused on women-centric themes. The same year, she won the best director and playwright award at Short & Sweet Kolkata (India). In Dubai, in 2016, she had won the Judges’ Choice Award as part of the same festival.
She is backed with a post-graduate degree in mass communication and literature. She lives in Dubai. Noor is also the creator of “Artist Boot Camp” online course for artists. She has curated multiple exhibitions and launched other popular projects such as the Art Weekend at XVA. She has consulted over a hundred emerging artists locally and internationally on taking their careers to a professional level. Arte & Lusso is an independent publication on Art, Fashion, Luxury Lifestyle and Modern Culture. The magazine focuses on news about distinctive personalities and important events in United Arab Emirates and internationally.
