Artists from United Arab Emirates in residence in St.Ives, UK

Visitors from the United Arab Emirates, Porthmeor Studios, St.Ives, Cornwall UK

On August 16th 2019 Afra Aldhaheri and Asma Belhamar, two young women, gave a talk about their work, having been artists in residence at these famous studios.

The began by showing a map of the Emirates, which are self governing states, once inhabited by pearl divers and fishermen but since the discovery of oil, and increasingly since 2000, developing with astonishing rapidity into wealthy places with hugely built up cities and a consciously developed art industry imported from the west and concentrating on intellectiual conceptual art, installations etc. produced almost entirely by women artists from an elite educated class.

Afra's work, seen in the subsequent open studio, is very precise and delicate and uses the forms of concrete buildings dominating mountainous terrain. Whilst in America she was nostalgic for the cranes and construction sites of her homeland. She made a loom, unusable with concrete weights, alluding to a past when women were at home weaving to pass the time, whereas now it seems there is no time to learn these skills.

Her students in UAE were shown, all women in black with head coverings which are the conventional dress. The artists were bareheaded at the studio visit but headscarved at the talk. 

A writer and artist with them, Gaith Abdulla, told me these women would not want their parents to see them with their heads uncovered. One of the two female curators accompanying them told me figurative art is ok in UAE but not nudity. Gaith is standing for their parliament, daring to defy convention by using brightly coloured posters and with a progressive program of being anti exploitation of migrant workers and anti domestic abuse of women. He seems to be both a serious candidate and in his country an undeclared user of this event as an art performance.

Asma's art in the studio reminded me of Paul Klee and used interlinking shapes and subtle colours. 

Both UAE artists' work was very restrained, controlled and lacking exuberance or expression to my mind but elegantly done.

The Emirates are a conservative Monarchy where homosexuality is illegal for both sexes. 3Parliament has a rule to be half female and education is equal but ordinary women have little political education. They described the art world as a 'top down' system in which it would be social suicide to openly rebel so that a soft touch approach to criticism of the politics and society is necessary.

In the traditions of these artists' communities poetry and music were said to have predominated. Getting interested in visual art via painting seems to be a brave move for them and they were glad to be in a relaxed artists' arena where life in Cornwall moves traditionally at a slowish pace.

I had done some work about women wearing burkhas and garb that only reveals their eyes, which I took to show them at the open studios but I felt gently rebuffed by the PhD student who was with the artists and had introduced them because she said burkhas are not worn in UAE and the head covering is seen as a tradition not a religious duty. It's clearly a subject for them with nuances that I am unlikely to easily grasp as my experience comes from UK and a brief visit to Tunisia.

The talk was all too short considering the wealth of ignorance I felt about UAE and the number of questions that might have been raised. The audience dispersed to enjoy eating dates and other deserts with delicate tastes and colours, delightful textures and decorated with almond flakes. There was coffee and rose wine and a buzz of gentle conversation. The layout of the seating in a U shape was explained as a reference to the hospitable traditions of their home countries.

More artists are expected to visit later.

This cross cultural meeting was an unusual event in St.Ives and I thought a refreshing initiative from the Porthmeor studios organisers to expand beyond the usual St.Ives art scene which often seems either stuck in a time warp of landscapey abstraction or on a conveyor belt of whatever the

Tate dishes up from its unseen lists of the newest international establishment in- crowd of artists who arrive to surprise us here.

As the Porthmeor events are subsidised, and this one was a free treat, they are truly accessible at least to the arty cognoscenti.

I would have liked more - some opportiunity to work alongside these visitors, to talk more, since they spoke perfect English, but at least some meetings and good intentions were established.

Subsequent research online re-affirms to me that UAE have a regime inclined to imprison its political critics without trial.

[The United Arab Emirates has a presidential, federal, and despotic monarchy. The UAE is a federation of 7 different constituent monarchies, which include the Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain, Ajman, and Fujairah.]