Posts Tagged ‘Lalla Essaydi’
Why Not DATE An “ARAB GIRL”? Again who is the “Arab” in your biased culture?
Posted on: August 11, 2020
Why Not DATE An “ARAB GIRL”?
Again who is the “Arab” in your biased culture?
From where is this girl? Has she any other identity?
DON’T DATE AN ARAB GIRL
She is not oppressed, like those caricatures on the news
Her long, flowing hair has not grown dark and strong to guide your eyes
To her curvy figure, which exists not to twirl into shapes
That she many enchant you to the beat of the group vigorous Dabke dance.
The “Arab” girl is born
With a fire in her belly and
Has inherited the strength of her fore-mothers.
Don’t date an Arab girl for she carries the Middle East on her shoulders
Every war and every invasion pushes her to tears
And she fights those tears back
To be replaced with a brave face for her brothers and sisters;
Starving, homeless and grieving.
Don’t date an Arab girl, she inspires revolutions with her passions and her protest
She will come home late: she stays amongst the dissenters
Until she can feel the winds of change.
Don’t fret, the Arab girl is protected from the cold
By the Keffiyeh (scarf) around her neck; she is the one sharing her last droplets of water
To quench the parched mouths, dried shouting for freedom in the midday sun.
Don’t date an Arab girl, she will fill your shelves and your mind with poets
Qabbani, Said and Mahfouz.
(And songs of Fairouz and the Ra7bani brothers)
The rivers Euphrates, the Jordan and the Nile run through her veins.
The spirit of Cairo, Algiers and the West Bank satiate her heart.
Don’t date an Arab girl, you will too often hear her sigh in longing
for the sound of the Muezzin in the morning, the taste of ‘real’ olives,
the smell of freshly baked bread and for the feel of the sun’s rays
Biting the nape of her neck in the late afternoon.
Do date her because you believe in her struggle, when you can match her passion
and feel her pain.
Date her because you can hold her as she wavers
under the load she carries
As the strength of her mother fails
For a short moment.
This poem was inspired by the Arab women I know and the Arab women I don’t know but still look up to.
Cover art is by Lalla Essaydi and the poem’s form was inspired by Charles Warnke and Adi Zarsadias
Art Dubai 2014? Top Twenty List
Posted on: March 27, 2014
Art Dubai 2014? Top Twenty List
“Over the years, Art Dubai has become known as a fair of discovery,” said fair director Antonia Carver at a March 17 press conference.
Art Dubai completed its eighth edition this year and with a big boom!
The energy at the fair was strongly felt and is a reflection of Dubai’s booming economy, yet many of the works are priced under $100,000.
It’s the availability of price points that makes this fair a destination for important local collectors and more modest collectors to expand their collections with reasonably priced pieces.
Corinne Martin posted this March 25, 2014
My Top Twenty List: Art Dubai 2014
I was happy to see Western dealers bringing works by contemporary Middle Eastern artists to the fair.
New York’s Gladstone Gallery showed portraits by Shirin Neshat from the 2012 “Book of Kings” series, priced between $50,000 and $110,000. Gladstone also displayed Anish Kapoor’s Untitled reflective concave dish sculpture.
Dubai-based gallery Lawrie Shabib displayed Nabil Nahas early abstract geometric paintings from the 1970s. It was lovely to see his works, Untitled from 1976 and Untitled 2 from 1978 which both sold.
“Part of a beautiful life is knowing people who make beautiful things” -@GarnieNygren
I enjoyed seeing familiar faces and connecting with new ones.. I saw some very beautiful art. The numerous book launches were a delight.
This year’s fair gave me some great memories, hours of inspiration, and happy creative vibes to last for the year!
As a way of giving back, I have selected a list of works and artists that personally left an impression on me at this year’s fair that I am excited to share with you. They are in no particular order. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Samia Halaby, Golden Leaf, Ayyam Gallery, Dubai/ London/ Damascus / Beirut
Mentalklinik, French Kiss, Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde
Hazem Harb, We Used to Fly on Water, 2014, Athr Gallery, Jeddah
James Clar, One Sun Two Times, Carroll Fletcher Gallery, London
Lara Baladi, Freedom is Coming, Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde
Shezad Dawood, The Source of Peace From The 99 Beautiful Names of God, Paradise Row, London
Youssef Nabil, Sweet Temptations, 2000, Rose Issa Projects, London
Ziad Antar, Roue De Beyrouth, 2014, Selma Feriani Gallery, London/Tunis
Daniel Arsham, Time is Slipping, Baro Galeria, Portugal
Hayv Kahramani, House of Gaylani, 2014, The Third Line, Dubai
Mounir Fatmi, I Want To Understand, Paradise Row, London
Ramin Haerizadeh, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/ Brussels
Lalla Essaydi, Harem #1, 2009, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London/ Zurich
Khaled Jarrar, Concrete #2, 2012, Ayyam Gallery, Dubai/ London/ Damascus / Beirut
Nabil Nahas, Untitled, 1978, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai
Kehinde Wiley, American, 2014 Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris
Pascal Hachem, Each One is a Future Dictator, Selma Feriani Gallery, London/Tunis
Graham Day, Al-Fatiha, Rose Issa Projects, London
Shirin Neshat, Bahram (Villains) from the Book of Kings Series, 2014 Gladstone Gallery, New York/Brussels
Athier Mousawi, A New Kind of Machine 1, Ayyam Gallery, Dubai/ London/ Damascus / Beirut
Ayman Baalbaki, 7ay Joubar, 2014, Agial Gallery, Beirut
Are you Dating an “ARAB” GIRL? From where exactly?
Is she harder to convince and more complex to understand than the ones on the big screen?
Pictures, photo-shoot, videos that have convinced you of her delicate and timid nature?
DON’T DATE AN ARAB GIRL
Don’t date an Arab girl
She is not oppressed, like those caricatures on the news
Her long, flowing hair has not grown dark and strong to guide your eyes
To her curved figure, which exists not to twirl into shapes
That she many enchant you to the beat of the group vigorous Debke dance.
The Arab girl is born
With a fire in her belly and
Has inherited the strength of her fore-mothers.
Don’t date an Arab girl for she carries the Middle East on her shoulders
Every war and every invasion pushes her to tears
And she fights those tears back
To replaced with a brave face for her brothers and sisters;
Starving, homeless and grieving.
Don’t date an Arab girl, she inspires revolutions with her passions and her protest
She will come home late: she stays amongst the dissenters until
She can feel the winds of change.
Don’t fret, the Arab girl is protected from the cold
by the Kaffieh around her neck; she is the one sharing her last droplets of water
to quench the parched mouths, dried shouting for freedom in the midday sun.
Don’t date an Arab girl, she will fill your shelves and your mind with poets
Qabbani, Said and Mahfouz.
The rivers Euphrates, the Jordan and the Nile run through her veins.
The spirit of Cairo, Algiers and the West Bank satiate her heart.
Don’t date an Arab girl, you will too often hear her sigh in longing
for the sound of the Muezzin in the morning, the taste of ‘real’ olives,
the smell of freshly baked bread and for the feel of the sun’s rays
Biting the nape of her neck in the late afternoon.
Do date her because you believe in her struggle, when you can match her passion
and feel her pain.
Date her because you can hold her as she wavers
under the load she carries
As the strength of her mother fails
For a short moment.
This poem was inspired by the Arab women I know and the Arab women I don’t know but still look up to.
Cover art is by Lalla Essaydi and the poem’s form was inspired by Charles Warnke and Adi Zarsadias
