Carrying on with its traditional support for the local Qatari artists emerging on the rich local art scene, the Visual Art Centre in Katara Cultural Village under the Ministry of Culture and Sports has come up with another edition of “Artists from Qatar” series.
The annual exhibition of six artists from Qatar monitors the most prominent artistic and technological developments of young and middle-aged Qatari artists.
One of the most prominent works in the exhibition this year is collages on canvas by Moudhi al-Hajri, who shares her take on children suffering in wars, particularly in the wider region of Middle East and Arabia.
“The children in the Arabic part of the world ended up being the victims of the flames of merciless wars that are still burning. Those wars still ablaze so violently and burn with their indistinguishing flames the children’s dreams and their childhood,” says the artist.
Through her work, al-Hajri asks questions besides sharing her observations. At the exhibition, she has put two life-sized dolls, in tatters, symbolising the suffering children, pointing to and looking at the pictures and painting collages hung on the wall ahead of them.
“The saddest thing of all is that they don’t even know why they are being killed or why their dreams are being taken away from them,” observes the artist.
“Artist Moudhi al-Hajri displays her experience in photography with her own touch. Selective photos are being displayed in the exhibition to shed light on the deep psychological aspects of the Yemeni children,” says Hanadi al-Darwish, the head of Visual Art Section, in her message.
Children are born and they die while not seeing of life anything but its darkest corner. That dark corner that harbours only fear, panic, hunger, homelessness, winters, murder and inevitable death.
The artist asks: “Who stole their youth? Who destroyed their houses? Who snatched their innocent dreams, by what right and for what guilt? Who is going to stop the implications of this horrible present on their sad doomed future?”
Through her work she asks questions like why the world remains silent over what is happening in the 21st century. Have humans not evolved past crime and murder yet? Her pictures, she says, represent the children of Yemen and what it’s going through to express the situation that children of wars go through.
Al-Hajri, born in Qatar, has received multiple awards for her work including the Anqa’ International Exhibition Golden Award 2014, The Arabian Woman Award 2013, Business Woman Group Award 2013 and Kuwait’s Third Summit for Khaliji Visual Art Award.
She has participated in more than 50 exhibitions in and outside Qatar in countries and cities such as Paris, Istanbul, Bialy, Kazakhstan, Cyprus and China, besides participating in different exhibitions held in GCC countries.
Some of her prominent personal exhibitions are “Painting on Silk”, 1999; “Visual Art Forum” (photography), 2006; “Documentary Photography of Yemen,” in Katara in 2013; and a similar exhibition in San’a in Yemen the same year.
Another artist being highlighted at the exhibition is Sheikha al-Thani, with her photography works of eye expressions and the Arabian horse faces. Her camera lenses prove her unique style.
Another prominent artist at the exhibition is Mubarak al-Malik. He enjoys multiple skills in painting, gravity and ceramic among others. His works reflect a personal vision of popular traditional items in modern style, where colours are the hero of his works.
Through her eye-catching paintings, Mona Bujassoum expresses her passion for heritage, customs and traditions in a colourful epic full of sadness and emotional flow. “Her portraits show great dexterity. Hayfaa al-Sada presents, for the first time, an integrated experience of women’s dreams and expressions on an aluminium surface to add value to her untraditional works,” says Hanadi.
Essa al-Mulla, also being exhibited, renders the Qatari environment using recycled materials to express his artistic philosophy and untraditional vision. The magnificent pieces with their historical ambience makes you feel like you have gone back in time.