By Umer Nangiana


He sees material in immaterial. And then goes on to create tangible ideas featuring ordinary and artistically elusive objects such as watermelons. Yes, in watermelons, he sees humans, shapes and figures. That is what makes him stand out among people practicing the type of art he finds himself creating.
Juan Miguel Ramirez, a Mexican expatriate and photo-artist based in Doha, even thinks in watermelons. He creates pictures telling human stories with watermelons featuring as protagonists or models. Showcasing a collection of such stories, Ramirez is holding his first solo exhibition of digital prints here at Katara Cultural Village under the title Everyday Surrealism.     
“I call it surrealistic because the subjects are formed with some unrealistic and ordinary objects such as watermelons, cheese, eggs, sticks, napkins and cardboard. This is also a way you can create art,” the artist tells Community.
Going about his work, he sketches first and seed if he gets the forms he is looking for. “Sometimes, I even take it from my daily common observations. For example, once I was eating cheese and when I cut it from the top and look at the surface, I said okay, this is a ship. I picked a stick from the table and erected it on the top of cheese, it made a perfect boat,” observed the artist.  
In Mexico, they say the moon is made with cheese. And among other objects that Ramirez uses in his installations, the egg symbolises life. An egg is in a process of producing life, he says. And he has depicted life in its different stages in one of prints showing multiple objects with three of them having watermelon heads.
“It shows my nephews, the three boys. When they were born, it was the happiest moment for us, me and my wife as we do not have children. These boys are our children. They were born in Paris. The picture shows three of them with their parents and then me and my wife on either side,” says Ramirez, pointing to a big digital print hanging on the wall to his right.
“You can notice the light coming from the top on the boys. It shows that they are the light as they are young and we adults have already lived past stage,” he adds.
With the watermelons used in the installation for this picture, he has played a small trick. He had put them in the freezer. When he pulled them out of the freezer, the red surface got parched and the watermelons got a little bent.
Besides watermelons, he has made use of black cardboard and napkins on the back and then flashed the area with light from behind. Ramirez says he deliberately kept the scene a bit hazy to give it a natural effect.
Pointing to another picture, featuring two watermelons positioned in front of two round structures illuminated with light from behind them, Ramirez says it shows him and his wife. “[The picture] shows that one is on the move while the lady is more stable. In the background, you would notice a sun and a moon. For me as a Mexican, this is very important. Here, the man is light and the woman is moon,” he says.
Moving to another picture, a vertical watermelon, Ramirez invites the viewers to have a closer look at it. “You will see ice. It is a frozen moment,” says the artist before going on to explain the picture that he has titled Jellyfish.
He has tried to show the marine life in motion from the depth of the sea. He creates it expertly with just a watermelon and a laser beam. “When the watermelon is frozen, the laser can go in and spread the light so you can see that the light is entering from one side and there are refractions from within it,” says Ramirez.
Talking about his technique and pointing to a pair of digital prints in the gallery at Katara Art Centre, building 5, the artist says that sometimes when his installations are ready, he discovers a newer angle that he hadn’t considered before. And he captures that too.
The two pictures on the show clearly depict why. Taken with same installation but from two different angles, the two pictures depict two different stories and relay different emotions.  The first one shows men going fishing and in the second they are returning with their women standing in wait.
“The later has more light in it because it shows the men are returning with fish which they would sell for money,” says Ramirez, adding that he completes his shoots in a single day and uses ordinary elements like flash lights and LED lamps.
He is currently working on a project of 10 pieces related to themes and elements associated with Qatar. Hoping to complete it in a couple of months, Ramirez plans to hold another solo exhibition here. His current exhibition is on display for public viewing till September 20.