To say that the works of the Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi are just photographs is a gross simplification. A painter by training, she spends six months preparing a shoot, decorating metres and metres of cloth with Arabic calligraphy. She covers the walls and floor of her studio with this intricately patterned fabric, and she dresses her models in it, too. Their faces, hands and feet are also adorned with hennaed writing. All this is done using a technique she developed herself - a syringe filled with henna dye.
Every time the clothes are worn, some of the dried henna flakes off and has to be reapplied. Not surprisingly, every shoot is preceded by a day of rehearsing, so that each of her models knows exactly what to expect and no movement is wasted.
Henna is a key element in her two recent series of photographs titled Converging Territories and Femmes du Maroc (Women of Morocco). This plant dye marks the milestones of a Moroccan woman's life: it is first applied at puberty, then when she is a bride and later when she has her first child, particularly if it is a boy.
The result is a collection of photographs of great beauty and tranquillity. Anyone who looks on these photographs feels they are seeing an intimate world of female secrets, but without any hint of a voyeuristic gaze.
Essaydi's work is well known in the US, but now it is showing in London for the first time as part of a major commercial exhibition of Middle Eastern art put on by Ray Waterhouse, director of the Waterhouse & Dodd gallery.
With auctions in Dubai regularly smashing records for prices, Waterhouse was unsure how many artists would want to sell their work at a gallery in London where prices were unlikely to be as high. "We did not get a single rejection," he says. The result is two parallel exhibitions: 15 well-known and upcoming artists, including Parviz Tanavoli and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, will be shown in an exhibition called Routes. Essaydi's photographs are showing in a separate exhibition in the gallery next door, to be called Crossroads. A selection of these works can be seen later at the artparis-Abu Dhabi art fair at the Emirates Palace in November.
If there is a theme that unites all these works, it is Arabic script. It appears magnificently in a bronze by Tanavoli of the Farsi word, heech. The three-letter word means "nothing", which Tanavoli playfully turns into something special. Script is integral to the work of Zenderoudi - who holds the auction record for a living Middle Eastern painter at $1.6 million (Dh5.87 million) - and the Tunisian artist and calligrapher Nja Mahdaoui. It also forms the background to the portraits of the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat.
But it is in Essaydi's photographs that cursive script takes over the whole work. Calligraphy is a male preserve, and Essaydi delights in subverting this tradition. Her work is strongly autobiographical, informed by her childhood in Marrakech, her marriage at the age of 16 and then her move to Paris and Boston to study art. She now lives in New York. Her work has never been shown in her native land.
"My work documents my own experience of growing up as an Arab woman within Islamic culture, seen now from the perspective of an artist living in the West and maintaining close ties with her original culture," she says.
Her work can best be understood with reference to another exhibition in London which ended recently at the Tate Gallery but is coming to the Sharjah Art Museum in February. The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting tells the story of how 19th century British painters projected their fantasies on the Arab world, highlighting the exotic to make up for their greyness of their industrial homeland.
Essaydi has set out to disrupt this "voyeuristic tradition" of artistic depictions of life in the women's quarters. Her women are strong and independent, with no sign of the come-hither looks beloved of Orientalist painters. She has removed the exotic colours, the lavish textiles and the eunuchs. Her women can be seen reclining, but they stare confidently into her lens. They seem firmly in control of their environment.
At first glance, all this might seem no more than a paean to women's empowerment. But it does not take long to detect something unsettling about these pictures. The borders of the images seem to press in on the women, as if they are being squeezed into cells. The lines of Arabic script take on the appearance of strands of barbed wire. As the women's clothes and faces are decorated with the same lettering, their humanity is reduced - they have become like the furniture. Sometimes they are posed as if talking, but they look like they have been silenced. Indeed, one of the women seems to be imploring with her eyes: get me out of here.
The women are strong, yet caged. The key to this paradox lies in Essaydi's life story. At the age of 15, she was sent as punishment to an old house owned by her family to spend a month in silence, with only servants for company. To shoot the pictures in Converging Territories, she returned to the same house in Marrakech, loading the works with the psychological baggage of that silent month. Her models understand that the house is not just a building, but a place of cultural boundaries.
In Essaydi's view, architecture and culture are inseparable in the Arab world - private space being the domain of women, public space of men. Thus her models become the buildings they inhabit.
"The women in my photographs are both held within an actual space, and at the same time are confined to their 'proper place', a place of walls and boundaries, space controlled by men," she says.
"One only has to look at the continuity between the henna on their bodies and the patterns of the surrounding tiles to see how they have become identified with their surroundings."
Does Essaydi believe that women in the Arab world need "rescuing" from male tyranny, as the Orientalist painters were keen to show? She dismisses any claim to want to enlighten Arab women, or speak for Arab womanhood in general."I am neither victim nor representative," she says. "Any artist trying to speak for her people 'in general' can only dilute her art with generalities."
Her work stands out as unabashedly figurative, still something of a rarity in Middle Eastern art. Essaydi does not see herself as breaking any new ground, as there is a long Islamic tradition of miniature painting. In any case, she sees herself as a Western-trained artist. This is not the least of the paradoxes of her work, a product of the tension between Islamic upbringing and Western training.
"It was my exposure to Western art," she says, "that enabled me to re-enter artistically the spaces of my childhood."
Routes and Crossroads are on show until Oct 25 at Waterhouse & Dodd, (+44 0207 734 7800, @email:www.modbritart.com). The online catalogue is available at @email:www.artroutes.com.
aphilps@thenational.ae
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
How to avoid crypto fraud
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
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16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
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Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Fernandes pen 2') Tottenham Hotspur 6 (Ndombele 4', Son 7' & 37' Kane (30' & pen 79, Aurier 51')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
'The Batman'
Stars:Robert Pattinson
Director:Matt Reeves
Rating: 5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
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What are the regulations?
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Rain Management
Year started: 2017
Based: Bahrain
Employees: 100-120
Amount raised: $2.5m from BitMex Ventures and Blockwater. Another $6m raised from MEVP, Coinbase, Vision Ventures, CMT, Jimco and DIFC Fintech Fund
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
