01 TAF - This.
The Art Flex is coming back as TAF - This. First drop - Saudi multi-disciplinary artist Ayman Zedani
Azul - happy June, loved ones! It’s birthday month which means Gemini season is in full swing. Hide your kids, hide your wife; you know the drill. I wish you the best of luck navigating Mercury and a retrograde Mercury.
In other news- I took the time to redirect and shift my focus and lit some vetiver scented candles; went on walks in ancient forests; touched clay, sand, and dirt; swam in salt water and here I am again.
The Art Flex is coming back as TAF - This.
The plan is to feature one artist per edition and highlight the perspective on art/making, engagement, storytelling, and production within their practice.
This. will be a space for experimentation in how to share and connect - offering a behind the scenes look at the elusive Creative Process©️ - centering reflection, iteration, and ambiguity.
This is a whatever-goes space; less formal q&a structure - I am interested in featuring the sketches, the ideas, the drafts, the potential - not just the final exhibition-ready piece, so let’s get weird. If you know artists who should be featured - pls email me, bb.
As always, everything I do is a love letter for my people.
Wided
xo
The First Drop:
Saudi multi- disciplinary artist Ayman Zedani - Zedani's practice attempts to renegotiate the relationship between the human and more-than-human worlds in relation to the future of the planet, and more specifically, the future of the Gulf.
Ayman Zedani: My previous studio was located next to Souk Al Bahar in Sharjah, one of the oldest markets that relied on goods exchange from and to the world through the sea. Since I moved to it back in 2016, the barrier between the souk and my space slowly started to dissolve extending that exchange to my practice as well.
Ayman Zedani: When I was going to my studio one day, I decided to pick some of the dried plants, from the market, to create natural pigments that I could use. I saw this odd-looking plant and asked what was it, and I was told it’s Kaf Maryam from Almadina Almonawara.
Ayman Zedani: Then I asked, What do people use it for?
At this point, I was really intrigued by knowing more about this pattern of plant, place, and practice, so I picked some of them to try to find out more.
In the studio, I realized that if you soak them in water long enough they start to open up like a human hand and they release their seeds that have been kept in pockets for when they meet a body of water.
The scientific name of it is Anastatica hierochuntica and it’s a resurrection plant that can survive extreme dehydration for years.
When you couple that with the story of Maryam binat Imran thing will make much more sense to the naming and the usage as well.
Also, for many reasons, I do believe that this practice could be a cultural meme from ancient Arabia that has seeped to our current time, but I am still looking more into it.
Both Souk Al Bahar and Kaf Maryam have initiated part of my practice that is still unfolding…
The concept of assemblage, Anna Tsing
Ayman Zedani: So, for my recent projects, I've been making these collages of the research process for an easier reference.
The Research:
“We leave you with this question: In this current culture flourishing in the region, can art function as an effective mediator of change?”
Bio: Ayman Zedani’s practice manifests between objects and multi-layered installations and attempts to renegotiate the relationship between human and non-human, animal and plant, organic and inorganic, land and water. His conceptual works are built on a series of experiments and investigations that look towards new materialist philosophies exploring the agency of matter, and consider multi-species collaboration as ways of surviving the challenges of the Anthropocene - deliberating upon human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth.
Zedani’s recent projects include Earthseed, Noor Riyadh, Riyadh (2021); Terrapolis, Expo 2020, Dubai (2020) Between the Heavens and the Earth, Lahore Biennial, Lahore (2020); the return of the old ones, 21’39, Jeddah (2020); Between muddles and tangles, NYUAD Gallery, Abu Dhabi (2019); non-human-assembly, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2018); Khamsa, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2018). He won the inaugural Ithra Art Prize and presented a new project in Art Dubai (2018) and had his debut solo show titled bahar-bashar-shajar-hajar, curated by Murtaza Vali, in Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2019).
Until next time.
Wided
xo
No stealing rule: Except as permitted by the copyright law applicable to you, you may not reproduce any of the content on this newsletter, especially artwork/ art files / art dreams, without the permission of the copyright owner aka the artist featured. Be good - if you like the stuff, give due credit.