How four Emirati artists are bringing together Kochi’s shore and Arab’s desert

As a maritime hub, Kerala’s Kochi once played a significant role when it came to cultural exchange with the Arab countries, linking the Middle East with the Malabar Coast through trade, art, music and cuisine. Titled Notes from Another Shore, the ongoing exhibition at Durbar Hall in Kochi is an answer to many questions related to the Emirati artists, exposing their vibrant updates on a terrain with their unique cultural, visual and material experiments. The paintings and installations of four Emirati artists displayed here bring in a kaleidoscope of history intertwined with ‘shore’ and ‘desert’.

Dubai-based visual artist Latifa Saeed’s installation Dust Devils offers a unique technological experience based on the mysteries of nature rooted in a cultural language evolved from the UAE’s desert landscape. The artist has used three devices – a smoke machine, an LCD screen and an electro-magnetic gadget — to express her ideas. Caught between whirlpools and tornadoes, the installation transports one to an atmospheric phenomenon experienced in the desert due to various ecosystems. Here, water tornado, air tornado, electromagnetic sand tornado and fire tornado come together, offering a reminder of the fragility and resilience of the traditional landscape in the critical age of Anthropocene.

These natural elements metaphorise in a special soundscape composed by the artist herself and spread at each side of the installation space. Dust Devils offer a sense of technological and sensory experience, looking at the mysteries of nature in the age of global warming and climate change. “A fundamental attribute of my artwork lies in its performative aspect, which permeates every stage of its execution. This serves to reflect upon and strengthen understanding of ourselves, our land and our roots,” says Latifa.

With the works of Emirati artists Hashel Al Lamki, Almaha Jaralla, Latifa Saeed and Samo Shalaby, the show takes one from Kochi to the shores of the Arabian peninsula. Hashel Lamki, a native of Al Ain, says he is happy that his work Maqam is being displayed in Kochi, where it can encounter a fresh audience. Known as the Garden City of Abu Dhabi, Ai Ain is known for its beautiful palm groves and natural springs. It was here Hashel grew up, listening to the compositions of maqam (a rich melodic framework and artistic tradition in the Middle East). Like the melodic compositions of maqam, the exhibition showcases the old and new works of Hashel Lamki, focusing on the interplay between natural landscapes and human interventions.

“The show gives me a great opportunity as an artist to see the work adapt to new space, undergo new readings and engage with new cross-cultural dialogues and audiences,” he says. Curated by Venetia Porter, a former senior curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Art at the British Museum, the show explores the influence of various cities on Hashel Lamki when it comes to the evolution of him as an artist. Starting from Al Ain, he travels to cities like Nairobi, New York, Port Au Prince, Antigua, New Mexico, Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Lyon, Atami and Al Ula. The exhibition portrays the role that these cities played in the artistic life of Hashel Lamki. His Light Sculpture series portrays a set of installations of lights and found objects.

“By introducing light to these objects, I revive them, thereby reshaping perceptions of their worth,” says Hashel Lamki, who also creates humorous sculptures out of recycled materials such as sawdust and chicken wire. Interestingly, he gives these anthropomorphic creatures punctuation marks as names. Semicolon is made up of a group of objects from Kenya which include baskets, drums and spoons. In another work in the series called Rejection and Reflection, the feet turn into praying hands, and are placed alongside a pair of horns of a goat.

Organised by Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, Rizq Art Initiative and Abu Dhabi Art, the ongoing exhibition is the first of its kind to bring together eminent contemporary Emirati artists to Kochi. The show opens new possibilities as a cultural exchange, helping art thrive on a global scale. “By breaking geographic boundaries, it places art on a global pedestal, transforming the local into the global in every aspect. The exhibition shows the cultural, social and economic interactions between the two coasts through art. Such movements make art initiatives more meaningful, leading us towards a boundless future,” said Murali Cheeroth, chairman of Kerala Lalithakala Akademi.

Abu Dhabi-based visual artist Almaha Jaralla’s installation Crude Memory presents a fictional reenactment of the emblematic Al Ruwais location near Abu Dhabi and its ghostly taxes in the present. Once a famous fishing centre in the region, Al Ruwais witnessed rapid industrial growth due to high oil extraction. Jaralla says Crude Memory developed from an investigation of the architectural creativity that flourished in Abu Dhabi in the 1970s and 80s. “My work considers how to memorialise a rapidly transforming local architecture developed by petro-modernity. It is about how to keep the past with us. My art reflects my personal and cultural journey, as I continually strive to encapsulate experiences and memories with my paintings,” she added.

Dubai-based Egyptian-Palestinian visual artist Samo Shalaby’s installation What lies Beneath unveils a theatrical extravagant labyrinth of surreal visions inspired by various art historical movements from the Renaissance and Baroque art to Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolism, in a contemporary reappropriation. “Merging my love of historical and contemporary styles into one context, it is a love letter to everything I have been passionate about in my upbringing. I am happy for my works to be displayed in a theatrical and surreal way, enhancing the immersive and surreal aspects of the work, and taking the audience on a journey between conscious and subconscious,” said Samo Shalaby. Notes from Another Shore is on till August 18.