JEDDAH — Listening to Saudi artist Manal Al Dowayan and observing her artworks will remind one that art and life look more like dreams than techniques, and that ordinary concepts can connect with one's emotions if they are made with joy. Al Dowayan is not only an artist, she is also a photographer, a visual poet and above all a woman whose creative impulse was enriched by the challenges of living and being brought up in a patriarchal society. She has come all the way from her beloved Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai to the Kingdom for her first solo exhibition "Journey of Belonging." The ongoing exhibition at Athr Gallery, Jeddah's leading contemporary art platform that plays an integral role in supporting Saudi artists in the Kingdom and was recently chosen to represent the Saudi art scene at Art Dubai 2013, kicked off on Jan. 15 and will continue until Feb. 15. The month-long exhibition features Al Dowayan's photographic retrospective; it includes a selection of 28 photographs from her new and previous collections highlighting concepts of social and individual identity with prime focus on the role of women and media in the Saudi society. The exhibit's title exemplifies Al Dowayan's concrete efforts through the years to explore and document feelings of belonging, disappearance and active forgetting. "Different stories are narrated by various collections but a unique pattern and question emerges through all of them: Do I belong to the society? Does the society accept me?” Al Dowayan said. Athr Gallery's first pavilion displays Al Dowayan's latest work "The State of Disappearance," a collection dealing with a need the artist has always felt to preserve: women's identity and that she has intensively explored from different angles in two previous and very famous participatory projects "Suspended Together" and "I Am." In the "The State of Disappearance" series, Al Dowayan uses typical images of faceless women that were frequently printed in local newspapers in the last two years. "The idea came to me when I started thinking about the issue of repetition in media and the danger of instigating what Nietzsche termed ‘active forgetting.' "Uniform and filtered images are fed to the masses over and over again to the point that the true image of the woman is disappearing and it becomes engrained in the brain to consider normal the representation of faceless bodies," explained Al Dowayan. In her artworks, the artist has ironically juxtaposed the words love, courage, happiness and intelligence against some of the most stereotyped images of women to create a tension between the colourful energy suggested by the written text and the dullness of the visual elements. This focus on women's issues has won Al Dowayan the reputation of being a feminist and women activist — labels that she embraces today without problems. "At the beginning I used to fight the feminist label I was given because in the west feminism and the fight for women's right gained the reputation of being too extreme. "However in Saudi Arabia feminism is at its very beginning and women's issues need to be pushed forward. "So yes, I am a feminist and I am happy to carry this label in the hope that the next generation won't need to," said Al Dowayan. Featured series reflecting upon the wide reality of gender equality also include “Pointing to the Future (2009),” “Look Beyond the Veil (2009),” “Blinded by Tradition” (2009), and “Silent Song” (2009). More personal subjects associated with the relation between the individual and his environment are investigated by Al Dowayan through her 2009 collection “Landscapes of the Mind,” 2010 series “And We Had No Shared Dreams” and 2012 collection “If I Forget You, Don't Forget Me.” The collections are an attempt to reconstitute the memory of her father's generation that witnessed Saudi Arabia's oil boom. Influenced by the Pop Art atmosphere of London, where she spent six months in 2009 followed by her subsequent move to Dubai, Al Dowayan started to experiment a new multi-layered approach using newspaper images, silkscreen prints, collage, spray paint, and neon and LED lights. Most of Al Dowayan's shots were taken in Saudi Arabia from cars, rooftops and within the ARAMCO Compound in the eastern province where she was born and brought up and where she worked until becoming a full time artist in 2010. After nine years of hard work and commitment, today she's one of the most acclaimed artists among the new wave of Saudi contemporary artists. Her works have been exhibited globally, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Venice Biennale and Edge of Arabia. The opening of Al Dowayan's current exhibition at Athr Gallery was accompanied by two events: the launch of the artist's new book based on her artwork series “If I Forget You, Don't Forget Me” at Jeddah's Store Boutique and a conversation between Al Dowayan and a journalist that led to interesting considerations on the significance and accessibility of art and the secrets to succeed in the art world. Although living in Dubai, an important artistic base for the entire region, Al Dowayan feels very close to Saudi Arabia and considers the country an incubator of creativity. "Everyone seems to think that Saudi artists are oppressed. On the contrary, I believe that we are having right now the best challenging atmosphere to foster our creativity. "Producing art is not easy and I advise young Saudi artists not to be lazy in this congenial situation. "It is important to find ways of moving one's art without depending on galleries. "A lot of artists including myself do their own shows and collaborate with other artists. "If you are confident in your production and work hard things will gradually happen," said Al Dowayan. "But above all remember to keep your mind active and find inspiration from life experiences and forget about external expectations. "If you imitate or create thinking about others' opinion, your work will die. "Even with 10 degrees from the best art schools will not make you an artist if you are not original and creative," she added. Al Dowayan, who constantly supports the Saudi and Gulf art scene by exhibiting and interacting with the public through talks and participatory projects, has also announced her next intervention on the concept of “free-zones” at Art Dubai Global Forum, a vibrant regional platform allowing writers, artists and researchers to engage in massive dialogues on the most interesting and disparate topics.
