In a war-torn world, everything is made fragile. A home can become rubble, possessions lost, communities broken and families torn apart. In an enviroment of insecurity and uncertainty, education and literacy is the most valuable and precious gift a child can be given. This piece reflects the permanence of literacy against the fragility of the pshysical. The quote Once Upon a Time represents each person’s individual introduction to literature from when they first started to read: It is these first books which ultimately inspire a child’s journey through literature and have a profound effect on the rest of their lives. It represents permanence of literacy both in the childs life, and also literature itself.
The delicate materials of paper and thread with its intricate craft brings the phsyicality of the words into a fragile state. The patterns on the letters are inspired by decay and deterioration. The physicallity of the words being fragile can otherwise be torn, broken, detroyed, stolen, yet the permanence of the words will still remain.
EPIC: the backs of Givenchy couture by Ricardo Ticsi
pen ii paper
Al Madad Foundation, in collaboration with Athr Gallery, is pleased to announce Pen II Paper, a group exhibition based on notions around knowledge. Education is one of the greatest gifts to be granted and literacy one of the most potent skills achievable. After all, If you educate a boy, you educate a man. Educate a woman, you educate a family and in turn that family becomes a generation. In a world where one’s circumstances are ever irresolute, the ability to read and write not only becomes a valuable transferable skill but also a tool to emancipate and empower. By definition, education is the acquisition of knowledge and the development of powers of reasoning. If knowledge is power, then the production of knowledge is a command just as influential. It is this notion, the production of knowledge and understanding, which is to be deconstructed and explored. This group exhibition is specifically curated to create a dialogue between artists and audience in a bid to question the diffusion of information, notions of knowledge and truth as well as the power of misinformation.
Nudging the ball
Throughout University I would often hear that the first two years out would be the hardest - It’s now been two years. It feels strange not to follow the next line with a self-pitying, cynical sentence, but instead - I think the ball has finally taken its first little roll.
The Last exhibition for the Al Madad Foundation was a success in many ways. I created a painting that I was proud of, a painting that sold, and a painting that the art curator loved. In turn she has asked me to be involved in a follow up exhibition for the same charity, which will be held in an Athr gallery in Saudi.
