Space for Many Meanings

By Anahi Alviso-Marino, "The artistic scene in Sana'a: painters speak (I)" - Yemen Observer - Sana'a, Yemen
Tuesday, October 21, 2008

With this new series of interviews, The Yemen Observer enters into the artistic scene of Sana’a to find out about artists, their work and their concerns over the challenges and achievements of the arts in Yemen.

Artist, art critic and university lecturer, Amnah al-Nasiri, opens the debate about the current situation of art in Yemen.

A long list of solo exhibitions, participation in international shows as well as book and article publications precedes one of the most renowned Yemeni artists whose work seems to be an infinite dialogue between philosophy and art.

After accomplishing her doctoral studies in aesthetics in Russia, al-Nasiri returned to Yemen where she currently works as an artist and teaches at the Philosophy department of the University of Sana’a. Every Thursday morning she receives artists, students, and whoever is interested in art at an atelier located in Bab al-Yemen, where her paintings are permanently on display together with those of other artists.

What do you wish to transmit with your paintings?
Many things. One of my concerns is that now most of the interest is fixed in the postmodernist movement and the word culture. With this, art is going far away from the human being, from humanism. My work follows a more humanist line. I try to talk about people, about who we are, about life. For example, two years ago I had an exhibition called “Creatures” in which I tackled life in general, from animals to anything that can be a form of life. If we think about art in material terms and forget or leave aside the human aspect, then we face a big problem. This is the main philosophy of my art work. I also mix Sufism, folklore, ornaments, and philosophy of course. Circles, figures of all types…symbols in the end, visual symbols that are part of Sufism are very present in my work as well. The relationship between art and others is important to me too, for example the relationship between a butterfly and a fly; I put them at the same level of the human. It’s all life.

Speaking about Sufi symbols in your work, is the calligraphy you draw in your paintings part of this influence as well?
No, the calligraphy has nothing to do with Sufism in my work, it is something different. It also comes from Islamic art but it does not have any connection with Sufi philosophy. In my work, calligraphy is “a form” and I try to use it without any meanings, without poetry or any religious meaning. I like the form of the writing.

Cats and birds are very present in your pieces, what is the meaning you give to them?
I use animals because I think they provoke the imagination. I want to put them out of context to provoke this.

There is a very impressive piece of yours, an installation I think, in which we see hands tied with wires. What was the message implied in this work?
“Al hasar,” you mean. This work created a lot of discussion because I used one of my abayas and on the place where the head was supposed to be, I put three hands tied with this wire that is used to secure prison walls. It was all illuminated with a red light. The hands are trying to go out from where the head should be. Around it there were a lot of hands also wired with this spiky wire. To me, this piece speaks about women that want to go out, women that want to break limits. However, and what is important, is that it is open to interpretation because above all I wanted people to decide by themselves what this piece could mean. It is very important in art to give the opportunity to interpret, to leave the space for many meanings to appear. This installation took place in Egypt and people liked it very much. I am planning on showing it in Yemen and also I want to do a video installation to bring different ideas here.

You mentioned the abaya and this idea about women sort of rebelling or breaking limits, is there anything you wish to address regarding women?
No, and it is because I don’t care, and you know why? Because I am not a feminist, both women and men have difficult lives in Yemen at several levels, but is not a matter of being a woman or a man. The problem is the mentality of the society, the education and these among other things are the things that have to change.

Sometimes in your work it is difficult to say if your human figures are male, female, both or neither. Is this something you do in purpose?
Yes, completely. If I draw women, people will think that I focus on women’s problems. When you draw a man no one asks or assumes anything. I don’t want to highlight any gender problem or difference in my paintings. I want to draw human beings, nothing else.

You also have a long trajectory writing in different newspapers and art publications, what is the focus of your concerns as a writer?
I write about philosophy and problems that are present in society or in religion. For that I research, and as a researcher I care about many things, but as an artist I focus on other things. I work on different areas and my work also depends on the audience I am addressing. For instance, when I write for newspapers, I try to explain art to people who are not very familiar with it; when I write in a research capacity it is often to explain more complex issues – for instance in my latest writings I wrote on violence as it is presented or used though art. Violence is present everywhere and now artists use it too. I talked in my studies about video games and movies that children watch, strong violence that some artists later also incorporate into their work. In Germany for instance, some artists killed an elephant on the street and at that time it was something above all very “unusual” and thus it provoked a big effect. Now some artists use dead people in art exhibitions. These uses are a problem in my view and I discuss all this in my new book. It is a problem that reflects part of what is happening in the world, the wars now taking place.

Speaking of this, two years ago in 2006 you participated in an exhibition held in Sana’a called “We will not forget.” Was it related to any of these concerns?
It was about the war in Lebanon.

It seems that a lot of your work has a political meaning as well…
Well, sometimes you must. In any case though you cannot deal with everything that is happening around you and I don’t want to reflect this in my work, so my work is not explicit. Of course I cannot be outside society so I care, but I express that by other means, like when I write. If I include politics in my art, in my paintings, then they could become just posters.

How would you describe the artistic scene in Yemen? What are the obstacles, challenges and achievements you see?
There are many problems; one of them is economic. Artists are not well paid and since they need money for their projects they focus on portraits or realistic art, which is what people buy here. Avant garde, abstract art is not appreciated or well understood. This is also a problem because it leaves abstract art behind. In Yemen this art is more appreciated by the intelligentsia, but even then, they don’t understand it completely and sometimes they buy it without really having a deep appreciation of it. I say this because sometimes you go to houses that belong to very wealthy people and they have pieces of art hanging next to framed pictures “Made in China”. Foreigners also buy, but sometimes as a way to bring with them part of Yemen’s folklore. When I paint I don’t think about this, but I know it is a problem, especially for young artists because is hard to live out of your art pieces. In my case I decided to work as a professor so I could remain free and do really what I want because I don’t depend on art to make my living. But for young artists that have no other better jobs, this is a problem and makes them turn into what the “clients” want instead of what they want to express. This problem affects the region as well, there is a lack of appreciation of abstract art and some people, like in the Gulf, buy pieces of art because they represent “culture” but again, not because it represents something to them or because they understand it. They buy it as products. In general, there is a need to educate people about art in order to create a better understanding of non-realistic art. What is positive is that the younger generations care more about this lack of appreciation and are filling this gap, something I see with some of my students.