Until May 2, visitors to the downtown campus of the NYUAD will get to look at installations and works by two local artists. The exhibition, entitled Place, is the alignment of Brazilian Jessica Mein and Emirati Mohammed Kazem’s works as they interpret the meaning of the word ‘place’ in their respective styles. The exhibition is edgy and thought-provoking and immediately brings to mind the extremes that one encounters in the UAE. Both artists are successful professionals, locally and internationally, and Mohammed is representing the UAE in the 2013 edition of the Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place every two years in Venice.
We spoke to both of them about the exhibition and their careers.
Mohammed Kazem
How do you find inspiration for your work?
My work is related to the global transformations that are occurring today in the social, political and natural environment. Through my work I reflect on the multiple events around me and raise issues closely related to specific aspects that have affected my personal biography, such as the changes in the UAE or situations I have experienced through my travels internationally.
Can you tell us about your participation in this exhibition?
This exhibition exemplifies my approach to creation. When I first came to NYU Abu Dhabi I had a site visit in order to see how my work could relate to the environment. I was immediately attracted by the reception hall in NYUAD and decided to produce a work relating to the movement of light, thus developing a body of work that I started in 2011, in Philadelphia, PA.
How do you hope your pieces make audiences feel?
Some of my works contain a clear narrative vein; some others have a more emotional impact on the audience. I deal with elements which are available and with which we all relate in our daily experience: sound, light, environment… Everyone projects her/his own emotions over the work and that is related in a different, individual way.
How does it feel to be representing the UAE at the 2013 Venice Biennial?
It is, of course, a great honour and a great responsibility at once. This will be the third time the UAE will be represented in Venice and for the first time the focus will be on one artist only. Together with my curator Reem Fadda, I am developing a project that will strongly impact the audience.
What fears do you have about presenting your work to the public for scrutiny?
For an artist, the visibility of the work is an essential step. It is not about fear; it is instead a test about the way the work will be received.
Jessica Mein
How do you find inspiration for your work?
From the world around me: sometimes from the most mundane details of our surroundings to overwhelming images, structures or materials.
Can you tell us a bit about one of your pieces?
The video animation Blackout is a short sequence of over 700 drawings, collages, frames and images produced and manipulated through repeating a few basic actions, such as folding, copying, cutting, mirroring. The resulting animation refrains from creating any narrative, becoming almost abstract. The high voltage wires and cables, that in the drawings and collages become almost indecipherable in some cases, also work here as central elements, both directly and by being sliced out and subtracted from the image, allowing rapid visions of an imaginary sky to appear.
How do you hope your pieces make audiences feel?
I don’t have a set agenda of how I want the viewer to feel towards my work. I think once it is out of my studio and in the world, it is up to the viewer to bring in her subjective interpretation into the work – that third space between the ‘object’ and the viewer’s perspective. That said, my work generally deals with the clash between the use of digital technologies and mechanical means of reproduction on one side, and my manual intervention – slow, painstaking and inevitably doomed to errors and accidents – on the other.
What does art mean to you?
I think art creates a sort of suspension in time; it creates some kind of disruption, or political point, or reflection, or different way of seeing or sensing something epic or something extremely mundane.
To learn more about the exhibition contact nyuad.exhibitions@nyu.edu. To learn more about Jessica’s work visit www.jessicamein.com. To learn more about Mohammed’s work visit www.mohammedkazem.com.
