The contemporary may be more burnished, the memories of the bygone always linger in some darker yet cooler spaces in the background though. Whenever you look at the modern, the past is bound to come to fore. The two are inseparable.
This is what Nagiya Moideen, a student artist from Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar (VCU-Q), has captured on canvas, showcasing it at this year’s ‘Strange Wonders’ exhibition by VCU-Q at Msheireb Museums.  
Her piece titled ‘Past and Present’ portrays two different times in the history of the nation which the artist has witnessed. It can be distinguished by Qatar’s most important buildings and the time of their creation in history.
Nagiya has divided her work into two categories. The bright side indicates the present Qatar along with the current exuberant feelings and there is a dark side which she calls ‘Qatar’s Historical Architecture’. The abstract quality of this artwork helps viewers to imagine what these colours symbolise.
“I have painted my memories from my childhood here in Qatar. I have been raised here. You can see places in Qatar from my childhood. This is the Fanar building, that is Sheraton (hotel), and on the bright side you can see the museum (MIA) and the Tornado tower for instance,” Nagiya tells Community pointing to objects on the canvas showcased at the exhibition which is currently on display the Company House in Msheireb Museums.
“I have tried to communicate through colours. I find colours as my language and I try to communicate through colours as an artist. And this is why I have used the saturated colours which I see as bright colours on the bright side and then on the dark side they are more muted or invisible colours,” says the artist.
She has used acrylic with polymer and soft gel and it took her about four months to complete this piece. Since it was a large one, she had to do a lot of layering, she explains as it was not possible to paint all different colours with one layer.
Nagiya also used the transfer prints. As it developed, she experimented and went over and over again on it. She used the technique of transfer prints to create the impression of lighter and darker sides. The images were created this way and then she painted on top of it to pull them out. Nagiya also used the soft gel to give them brightness and a kind of glossy effects in some areas of the whole painting.
“It makes me happy when people come and comment on my pieces in the exhibition. It was really interesting to see them pointing to Sheraton, for instance, in the painting and say it made them recall their childhood,” says Nagiya.
The young upcoming artist says she feels elated to see that the audience grasped the idea and interpreted it exactly the way she had imagined it as an artist.
Strange Wonders is her third exhibition after the first one in Katara arranged by her department. On the completion of her degree she intends to do internships at museums like Mathaf: The Arab Museum of Modern Art, the Fire Station or Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).
Born in Kerala, India, Nagiya is a formalist artist who is based in Qatar. She is currently enrolled at VCU-Q pursing a Bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking. Her work relies on polaroid, photograms, layering, re-scanning of images and painting these processes to create one work of art.
Each process is an ongoing conversation in discovering shapes and searching to simplify the composition until it conveys a satisfactory message to her mind. The colours in her work are used as a language and abstraction as a form to express her language.
In 2015, Nagiya exhibited her work in a group show, We’re in the Same Room, conducted by VCU-Q seniors at Katara Art Center (KAC). She again exhibited her work at ‘House of Sweden’ in 2016 at the HBKU Student Center.
The ‘Strange Wonders’ exhibit represents a culmination of the artistic journey of the students, alumni and faculty and staff of VCU-Qatar.
This year’s exhibition was inspired by a vision set forth by Qatar’s new cultural icon, Msheireb Museums, which mandated that the works of art presented in ‘Strange Wonders’ 2016 derive from a theme of pioneering innovation, industrial development and growth and advancement.
This creative guideline is in keeping with the history of Company House during the period of the discovery of oil and the life of those pioneers who set the bases of the modernisation of Qatar.