Critical Reflection
After our final MA show, I found myself seeking stillness from chaotic thoughts and real life changes. So I unintentionally started shifting back to basics. It all started with my small watercolor apple on paper. At first I would create one or two in moments of need for calmness, when I felt stuck or overwhelmed. I didn't really think about what it all meant until the summer came along and I stumbled across Sachiko Abe's performance titled ‘Cut Papers’. She would sit in an open space, usually at an elevated platform, and cut thin strips of paper. working hours at a time creating these thin bristles that then also creates a whimsical space. While viewers are watching her, the sound of the scissors is enhanced in the room as she claims that, alongside the physical cutting of the paper, it is also therapeutic which helps calm her and slow things down. She discovered the soothing act of cutting while staying at a ward because of mental health issues. (Noorata 2016)
The idea of repetition, creating rhythm and regulation, resonated with me, and it made sense. We are creatures of habit and in times of shifts and changes I can see why I, just like many, found comfort in repainting a basic shape as the apple. Just the idea of color play, visually observing and physically experimenting with pigments, helped me find stillness in a time where I felt a lot was happening and moving around me. It helped by freeing me from my own style and somewhat rigid lines; giving me enough of a border, or structure, to then allow myself not to think of what is needed to get the correct shape and curves but to just let the colors flow into what it wants to become. I played with all the colors of the pallet, mixing my own or straight from the tube. It reminded me of my childhood, innocently amazed with what and how color reacts to water. By now I have created around 70 pieces at least of quick loose color explorative apples.
Of course this isn’t something new, artist using art as therapy for their mental health, whether they are trying to bring awareness to the issue on purpose or not. For example, Yayoi Kusama, who's well known for her signature pumpkins and polka dots, uses repetition as a treatment for her anxiety and depression. It helped her cope with the hallucinations she's experienced from a young age (MaddoxGallery 2020). And of course who can forget Van Gogh's famous painting, Starry Night, that was created when he was in an institute for his mental health. His style alone, the circle motion of the stars, his repeated brush strokes that then all together creates an image. (VangoghGallery)
artists like Diango Hernandez, who has not necessarily expressed personal mental health issue, does touch upon it through his work by the use of patterns and repetition. covering different themes that I relate to, such as identity, memory and migration. His work consists of repeated wave-like patterns, like waves of water, rivers and the sea, reflecting the constant changes of the human experience (Mousse 2016). Another artist that also touches on mental health in an indirect way is Jean Shin, who uses everyday materials to bring attention to social concerns; i see it as an unspoken trauma that not just faces the environment but us in an indirect way. For example; how the production of our food has a huge impact on today's pollution and thus our health. This is best presented in her 2020 ‘floating maze’ artwork that consists of more than 7,000 green Mountain Dew bottles. Her work comments on the large and Harmful industrial culture such as fructose corn syrup in everyday human intake within what we eat. The repeated motions of working with those bottles must have given the artist somewhat of a therapeutic experience because of replicating the act over 7000 times. (Ebert 2020 )
I remember being taught back in high school that writers and poets sometimes use the same word, whether after each other in a sentence, to not just create rhythm but to emphasize and reiterate, or enhance its significance and somewhat to highlight and make it bold. Rituals in certain cultures have repetition of movement and words to again reiterate and emphasize the situation but at the same time to help ground the self. With all of that in mind, and the new found comfort in repetition, I started creating sketches around it, and of course by using the basic patterns of fruits. Whether from memory, pictures or real life, I would stick to the outline and recreate it several times on the same page. Imagining, or physically moving the fruit around in different positions until the final composition of the paper felt comfortable, then I'd start again with a different fruit on a new page. With each piece, my mind goes to and runs around different matters that have been part of such overwhelming feelings, of which is the reason why my heart seeks stillness; creating my own personal therapy by using art.
While creating my painting titled , which included a pile of mangos, and my morphed fruit, I became interested in revisiting the world of still life. This piece stamps an incident that discusses social behavior and pressure which circles back to my main topic of othering. I used it both as an outlet to release my frustration towards it as a coping mechanism, and to raise awareness to such topics, in general, of social issues within, not just my society, but sadly many. Rather than expressing it with blunt and direct words or imagery, I turn to the subtleness and expressions of still life. I tried my best to comment on a situation in a silent manner to help depict the quiet-ness that came from and towards such situations that occurred from and within social groups.
Still life has always been a world filled with symbolism, a rotten fruit and skull talks about the shortness of life and death, or the plenty and pumped freshness can talk about life's beauty and richness. Just the type of fruit presented can depict the season within the year, All of which scratches the surface of what is behind the artwork, especially when it comes to the history of women and still life painting. Of any society in any political or social issue, women struggle and fought to get the basics of what men already have, so obviously it was the same thing when it came to art. In the twentieth century most prestigious art universities and institutes did not allow women to study anatomy, because of that they had to revert to still life, which made them take a deep dive in to expressing within it. This is best explained in an article titled 'The quiet radicalism of still life', written by Philomena Epps, which expresses her thoughts on 'Life is Still Life’ An exhibition that took place at The Women's Art Collection, housed at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, in October 2022. “the exhibited artists all 'engage with the history of still life as a genre, while also commenting on pressing current issues including climate change, the pandemic and the legacies of colonialism" (Apps 2022). a quote within the article by the curator Naomi Polonsky, who presented a series of modern and contemporary still life, the art work were made between 1940 and 2022. The exhibition includes Maeve Gilmore's paintings of pears. She painted this piece pregnant with Clare, her daughter, in the moments of early labor. Now this painting is forever connected to the memory of her daughter's birth. This is a small example of what different hidden stories come with such paintings as still life. (Apps 2022). My use of fruits in all my work is a representation of people. Sometimes presented as portraits to almost monument a moment of awkwardness that comes from feelings of otherness. Other times I place them in a pile to present a society, or scattered to discuss a sense of being an outcast and or far from. With each painting comes an unspoken story.
I'm a big fan of the quite radical, It's about understanding that there is more to what the eye can see, it sneaks up on you with an element of surprise and for a moment it's like a lightbulb, new information rushing through, whether good, bad, basic or simple, its always interesting to learn and understand what had happened to bring any artwork to its existence. what i find most interesting is when artist use different elements to provoke a range of feelings, for example i try to bring a bit of humorous element in my work, to help bring or grab attention to then talk about important topics such as identity and othering. one of my favorite artwork is by Australian photographer Tamara Deans still life work “The Suspended Moment” where she assembled an underwater set up for her still life photography, which of course included fruits. It captured stillness and animation all at once creating these fantastic and magical artwork. although the work is whimsical and fantasy like, her themes touches on climate emergency because of human greed, which is the cause of the on going threat from natural disasters. when i first understood the meaning behind the work, it gave me a melancholy feeling, kind of dragging me back to earth, reminding me of the tragedies that we have cause on ourself both in the past and the ones we have yet to face. (Reid 2023)
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Her most recent presentation of the series was 'Cut Papers #13' in the eighteenth Biennial of Sydney. (Noorata2016)
a few of my watercolor apples on paper.
Yayoi Kusama, Red Pumpkin, 1994, Screenprint (MaddoxGallery 2020)
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Life and stillness
(Vangoghgallery)
still Life with Pears
c.1954, oil on canvas by Maeve Gilmore 1918–1983 (Apps 2022)
filming myself experimenting eco paint and testing at UAL. playing with natural pigments.
my apples. showcased at Peckham levels exhibition .
(Mousse 2016)
(Ebert 2020 )
Mangos always reminds me of Bahrain because of this one compound that is filled with mango trees.
Going bananas over what steps i need to take for the next chapter in life
I paint watermelons when i think of Palestine
my painting Broken Rose Colored Glasses. that was showcassed in my final MA sohw
A close up on my morphed fruits.
Lucia Hierro work, who is a Dominican-American artist, takes images of typical items that you usually find in New York's grocery stores and markets, like sugar, certain canned goods and more, then elevates them into fine art. She prints these items on large pieces of fabric assembling in a cohesive manner placing them in a larger than life bag. This is her way of commenting on the consumption and capitalism that defines American culture (Hierro 2023). This work is a perfect representation of what still life artwork is of today, siting between installation and textile art. I really like how she takes a 3D item and turns it in to something flat, with the use of fabric, print, photography. Which is something I have been experimenting with my own work, playing with both 3D and 2D but with painting, drawing and ceramic; Trying to expand from the limits of a framed canvas.
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all three images taken from Lucia Hierro website as examples for her work (Hierro 2023)
my morphed fruit expanding out of the canvas and presented as a 3d ceramic sculture hanging on the wall. this was part of my MA final show
Holly Coulis, a Canadian artist, who has an abundance of fruit paintings, especially ones of lemons (Philip Marten 2023). Her work reminds me of blind drawing, which is a creative practice to observe and focus more on the subject, each line and curve, rather than the outcome. It's to monitor and visually study, to help comprehend how things flow on the physical body of the subject. Although I don't think it's how she painted her lemon series, I felt inspired to take that root. I did a few blind drawing samples with fruits. Using a pencil to blindly repeat the shape of the fruit, then outline the parts that I liked. last I used watercolor to paint in between the lines to mimic how Coulis had created them in her paintings.
After a few experimentations I expanded the blind drawing aspect with fruits and human faces. I first started drawing a face, people I see in the parks, or of a friend. Then without stopping, or looking at the page, I continue with a fruit from memory. I repeated the process at least three times in one sitting. Once I was comfortable, I recreated the idea but on a larger scale. Here's an example of a man wearing glasses and a strawberry.
(Philip Marten 2023)
final out come from blind drawing experimentation with fruit
blind drawing exercises, human face and fruit
I really am enjoying the outcomes of my blind drawing experimentations, the over layering of lines and repetitive images of the same fruit. I took that idea for my next painting, I started repeating the shape of a banana, without over thinking, allowing lines to overlap and intertwine creating their own shapes, I then took paint, marker and pen highlighting the parts that I liked, while keeping the overlay visible. I want to continue exploring the idea of fruits and birds, entering a new world of expressionist still life art, trying to move forward with my 'Fruit Salad' series. I've been having a lot of with family, friends and strangers, which some I was lucky enough to record. Most of our conversation were about identity, belonging, Feelings that stems from different topics of social and societal issues which circles back to the concept of othering. I painted this piece while having all such conversation in mind.
Still trying to break the boundaries of the canvas frame, playing with 3D and 2D, I continue to expand with ceramic as an extension to the piece. As it extends out of the canvas, hanging on the wall, I continued my experimentation by adding a layer of paper under the ceramic. Playing with three layers, the canvas, the clay and now paper, trying to show depth.
using the same technique that i developed after looking at Holly Coulis's work. first with pencil, then go back with pen, marker and paint and highlight the lines and curves that i liked.
here the banana extention are still being formed.
the picture next it is fully dried up and ready to be fired. you can also find the paper pieces at the bottom. This piece is still in progress.
While looking at a lot of still life paintings, I gravitated to Sarah Spackman's still life artwork, especially the ones of oranges, which inspired me to paint my piece titled ‘Birth Of‘. Speckman is known for her bold and strong use of color, it made me want to revisit oil painting, as it is her main medium. She usually works with a limited number of objects, with the maximum of three varieties. Which was another reason why I enjoy looking at her work, as i move forward with my own, introducing a cluster of a fruit, morphed fruit and new characters like the bird: trying to express by using subtle objects and limiting myself to two or three, this time oranges and eggs, to create a still life piece. (sarahWisemanGallery 2023)
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two images of Sarah Speckmans work (sarahWisemanGallery 2023)
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a close up of my painting ;Birth Of'
I don't think this was a successful piece, I wanted to take Spackmans' bold solid colors, limited objects and combine them with my technique of repetition, repeating the orange placing it all over the canvas. The boldness of the orange might have lost the beautiful overlapping of the objects that I was able to create with the bananas on the previous painting. So I tried to repaint the piece, which I did at least 3 times with no success. First I changed the color palette thinking it could have been the issue, then I tried erasing some of the oranges, last I tried adding more oranges. I think I prefer the ruff lines and the repeated over layering technique then the bold colors that I loved in Spackmans work.
Take 1
Take 2
Using quick dry clay and recycled materials i was able to built an orange. I wanted to create the texture of the orange by taking a real one and pressing it on the outer layer as a printing technique . it wasn't as successful as i hoped it would be.
i think creating a mold would be better.
But for the button like shape that connects the fruit to the tree, i actually took it from a real orange and placed it on the clay, with white paint it looks really good. it gave me the idea of trying to imbed the actual skin in the clay as well.
A quick sketch of how I envisioned the outcome of this pice to be. Just as I had two mangos on the ground for my MA show, I wanted to have oranges of different levels, cut, as if coming out of the ground. morphed fruits scattered all around the wall.
a quarter of an orange as if coming out of the ground. not very successful.
Simultaneously working on another painting, which contains lemons, still working with oil painting, I tried to go back and emphasize the lines and pattern-like image that I found interesting in my blind drawing that then led me to the banana painting which i think i lost in the orange piece.
I find this piece to be more successful than the oranges, I still feel it is unfinished but I am hesitant to move forward with it. But I am enjoying how the process and growth of my series ‘fruit salad’ is going. Even though it has been a bit over a year working on this project, I am still at the beginning stages. after graduating I plan to continue my exploration and research and see where this takes me.
Fruits and Other-th-ing-s
Did you know Jaffa, in Jaffa Cakes which is a popular British tea time treat, refers to the oranges from Palestine. They are called Jaffa, as in Yaffa, after the name of a city it was once dominantly produced in. These orange farms existed way before the short British occupation of Palestine, way before they handed it over to the occupiers that are still ruling in this present day. Although the Palestinian oranges isn't being used in Java Cakes anymore, due to the cause of political issues, the majority of farms have vanished as did their owners, they still hold the same name today (Abusaada. 2020). As well, the title ‘Jaffa Cakes’ was never patented by the company that first produced them, so a lot of other competitors used the same name when presenting any kind of cake mixed with fruit jam-like substance and chocolate, especially if it was with orange, here in the UK. (Marilyn 2016)
the name and a fruit was quickly adopted by the world, yet the people, land and country have disappeared from any relation to it, which makes me question what other fruits, baked goods, foods or even objects might have such history that we as the general public don't know about, and why? or Is it even significant to know its past?
We live in a world full of discrimination yet an orange is an orange.. We don't see the difference. It is definitely important to know the history, only to show and criticize the complex and intertwined world of today that is constantly bombarded with, not just physical but mental borders, rules and regulation, limiting, segregating, othering and alienating us from each other. History is important because it bluntly displays the freedom for one but the injustice of the other.
Those oranges, as we live in a world of categories, labels and boxes, are diaspora oranges. They were first willingly traveling exploring, a strong export to expand and connect, bridging our worlds. Then because of the brutal occupation it became a migrant, an immigrant, a refugee separated from its family. after, becomes quickly adopted, used, covered and combined into confectionary cakes, only then loved by the majority. Now what is left, which partly made its way in the farm lands of Spain, are the diasporic. Yet all those labels somehow skipped the oranges and only marked the people who have birthed them.
Java cakes could have been a stance of celebration, a union of two different cultures coming together, but sadly it reminds us of the massacre that occurred, only to be buried and forgoten again.
Such stories are important because they break the construct of borders and all labels.. We see oranges as simply oranges, yet why can't we see the people as simply people. If the Jaffa Cakes history was written in school books it would have humanized the Palestinians, it would have had to mention the stories of all the families who have grown them. It would have shown the harmony of all different religions living together in peace. It would have shown that, during the exact same time as Arabs with deferent beliefs stood together with no discrimination, the Europeans had a racist war against themselves with people of different faiths. It would have shown that the occupation of the Palestinian land and people has nothing to do with religion.
This story, one of many, is a big part of why I wanted to work with fruits, why I connect them to my identity. as a Saudi Palestinian I am who I am, but without the crossing of those two worlds I wouldn't be me. Not only that, but all the countries I've visited, people I've met, they all have embedded and printed something that made me who I am today, and no boarder can deny my existence. I create these morphed fruit to present people like me, people who recognize their growth, relations, their identity and the idea of belonging has no borders, and to limit it is to other.
Today I mourn every innocent soul that has been taken with brutal force before its due time, regardless of its background, timeline or religious beliefs. I mourn the loss that the world has witnessed throughout centuries. I mourn full heartedly today.
May you all rest in peace.
In the background i played an interview by France 24 news outlet that was aired in Jun, 2021. Avner Gvaryahu,, a former Israeli soldier, is the executive director of Breaking the Silence, an organization of more than 1,000 veteran Israeli soldiers who are blowing the lid off the IDF's terrible actions against Palestinians. title of interview on youtube: Israeli soldier breaks silence on occupation of Palestin | Middle East Matters • FRANCE 24 English
deconstruction VS destruction. i just want you to breathe again.
photos I took in M&S grocery section. showing different varieties of Java cakes
Jaffa from the orange groves, 1898-1914. American Colony Photo Department, Matson Collection, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/matpc.06520/.
(Abusaada. 2020)
The packaging of oranges in a family workshop in Jaffa, 1907. Bibliothèque nationale de France. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb44587956b.
(Abusaada. 2020)
Witnesses
i new project in mind. came to me after attending the 'come together right now' workshop.
you walk in to a large room filled with ceramic oranges hanging from the sealing. each orange has eyes staring, they are the witnesses to the injustice that has fallen on to their families.
same orange from the ' Birth of' piece.
since its quick dry clay i can easily continue my experimentation by adding eyes. for the 'Witnesses' project.
Sources
Abusaada, N. (2020 Jaffa: The rise and fall of an Agrarian City, Institute for Palestine Studies. Available at: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1650539 (Accessed: 05 October 2023).
Binlot, A. (2023) These are the 5 NYC artists to know right now, Highsnobiety. Available at: https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/5-nyc-artists-to-know/ (Accessed: 29 August 2023).
Cohen, A. (2020) 17 contemporary artists reimagining the still life, Artsy. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-17-contemporary-artists-reimagining-life (Accessed: 22 August 2023).
Ebert, G. (2020) Thousands of plastic bottles are suspended in green tendrils in artist Jean Shin’s latest installation, Colossal. Available at: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/07/jean-shin-floating-maize/ (Accessed: 24 August 2023).
Epps, P. (2022) The quiet radicalism of still lifes, Art UK. Available at: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-quiet-radicalism-of-still-lifes (Accessed: 24 October 2023).
FRANCE 24 English (2021) Israeli soldier breaks silence on occupation of Palestin | Middle East Matters • FRANCE 24 English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4k05uvblcM. ( Accessed: 13 October 2023)
Greenberger, A. (2023) The 100 Greatest New York City artworks, ranked, ARTnews.com. Available at: https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/artists/best-new-york-city-artworks-nyc-1234674469/lucia-hierro-sweet-beans-habichuela-con-dulce-2017/ (Accessed: 29 August 2023).
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maddoxGallery. (2020) The art of repetition: Pattern and repetition in contemporary art, Maddox Gallery. Available at: https://maddoxgallery.com/news/61-the-art-of-repetition-pattern-and-repetition-in-contemporary-art/ (Accessed: 28 July 2023).
Marilyn (2016) Jaffa Cakes. https://heresthedish.com/2023/02/11/jaffa-cakes/ (Accessed: October 20, 2023).
Mousse, M. (2016) Diango Hernández and ‘War II’ at Mostyn, Llandudno, Mousse Magazine and Publishing. Available at: https://www.moussemagazine.it/magazine/diego-hernandez-war-ii-mostyn-2016/ (Accessed: 07 August 2023).
MSEd, K.C. (2023) 'How othering contributes to discrimination and prejudice,' Verywell Mind, 1 May. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-othering-5084425.( Accessed: 04 September 2023)
Noorata, P. (2016) Artist cuts a meditative fortress of paper strips, Faena Aleph My Modern Met. Available at: https://mymodernmet.com/sachiko-abe-cut-papers-13/ (Accessed: 24 July 2023).
Philip Martin, G. (2023) Holly Coulis - Biography, Philip Martin Gallery. Available at: https://philipmartingallery.com/artists/32-holly-coulis/biography/ (Accessed: 04 September 2023).
Reid, M. (2023) The suspended moment, Michael Reid. Available at: https://michaelreid.com.au/exhibition/the-suspended-moment/ (Accessed: 23 August 2023).
Sarah Wiseman Gallery (2023) Sarah Spackman: Artist, Sarah Wiseman Gallery. Available at: https://www.wisegal.com/sarah-spackman/overview/ (Accessed: 03 September 2023).
Vangoghgallery, the (no date) VINCENT VAN GOGH: STARRY NIGHT, The Van Gogh Gallery. Available at: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html (Accessed: 03 October 2023).
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