Hala Al Khalifa
Contemporary Art
Final project
April 21-1997

" FACES ", a show presented at the Art Center in Bahrain, on March 8th 1997
The exhibit is a collaboration between the artist Ibrahim Bu Sadd, a poet, Qassim Haddad, and a musician, Khalid Al Shaikh who Composed and sang the poems. The show allows painting, words, and music to interact and create the whole theme using different media Each aspect of the show experiments with one another, transporting the audience through visual representations, language, and sound.

According to these artists, this experience has given them a joy that they wish to transport to their audience. As they put it: " The joy of fulfilling our idea, and being able to see it come to life. Creating art in several forms, living with this experience brought us to the ultimate State of pleasure, which many transfer to our audience."

" We Came with these faces, Captured from the jungle of humans." "Faces we had known, loved, hated, respected, or feared." To work within a group and produce art, in my opinion, is very hard. Making art is a personal experience or process. It involves a great deal of thoughts and emotion that control the mood of the artists. Mood swings that either Contribute to the work, or leaves the artist in a State of numbness and confusion towards the idea.

However, in this particular show each artist expressed the idea in different forms. What Was able to move me as a viewer is the intensity of the experience, and how strong the bond between the poems, these mysterious portraits, along with the music and the repeated verse:

Jungle or humans..
gazing into the gloss space,
happiness or sorrow

Ibrahim Bu Saad, born in Muharaq City, Bahrain, 1954, Received a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from Bagdad University, Iraq 1978. He participated in different group shows in the Middle East, and organized a one man show " LIGHTS AND SHDOWS ", Bahrain, 1996. Qassim Haddad, born in Muharraq city, Bahrain, 1948. He is a founding member of Bahrain Writers Association. Participated in many national, regional and international symposiums. He also contributed in many local and Arabic newspapers and magazines. His new publications, THE GRAVE OF QASSI M, NEITHER THIS WAY NOR ANOTHER, and DARKNESS UP0N YOU O'MOUNTIN , are currently in press. Khalid Al Shaikh, born in Manama City, Bahrain, 1958 Received a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Economics, University of Kuwait Later studied at the Institute of Music in Egypt. Khalid Composed and preformed songs for himself since 1983, he also Composed music for other singers from the Gulf, and other Arab countries.

This recent show had a number of installations and paintings. Faces, frontal or profile appeared in each piece, painted abstractly, reminding me of the elongations in Modigliani's portraits. the Paintings are Cantered by the face, often in an unsettling pose with a peculiar look or gaze. The artist exagerated in translating the sizes of the features. The faces are not comfortable to look at, however, they con gross on you!.

The installations resemble the same faces, elongated shapes hanging from the Ceiling. Abstractly pointed, yet the eye in all pieces is very significant They tell a lot about the nature of the person, deep circles surround the eye, making them strike the viewers attention due to their mysterious nature. Other features in the installation are less identified Eyes in the Middle east are a symbol that gives the key to the sole. In pottery, the eye is always described extensively. The only part of the face that is exposed in women is the eyes, the Viel covers the rest of the body. She eye is also a protector, women wear it around their necks or decorate the house with it to prevent an evil eye.

The work around these faces are the Arabic poems, written in beautiful bold block paint. The words are written in different sizes, often overlaying each other which makes it hard to read. These groups of words and letters create a busy background to the rectangle with the face. The fact that the words are not read easily makes it more interestingly. Even if I know how to read Arabic, this allows my eye to travel around the piece and select several words that attract try attention.

Arabic calligraphy consumes a great deal of time and patience, and very few artists nowadays combine it within a pointing. The interaction between the portraits pointed in a casual and Modern style, against a formal interpretation of words and letters result in an exciting product, Harmony between painting and script emerges.

The paintings have an odd form, which is enhanced by the geometrical shapes of paper collaged onto the painting. They contain the same style of script that's used in the background. In several pieces some words travel and cross the border to settle around the portrait a single letter or word breaks the stillness of the rectangle.
Against the sharp block edges of the words, color appears differently in each piece. Deep and bright color play together to form depth and shadows. The painting have a fairly smooth surface compared to the installations that are heavily textured.

Personally, I was moved by the whole work, and the idea behind the show. I translated a part of the poem so you can have a clear understanding of the them :
Jungle or humans,
Gazing into the gloss space,,
Happiness or sorrow

It's not a picnic, who knows?
Is this whiteness of the grave? Who knows,,,
Am I in the first letter,,or the last word,,

Church of the soul, how will I tell,,
About the shivering of the body
Like a child scored from the storm

Come forward..
We prepare weddings and funerals.,
Support you, stab you

Come forward,,
Looking glorious going to write, as if to death