Int’l artists’ tales of the city

By Nora Heidorn

AMMAN -Although a solo exhibition allows a visitor to immerse into an artist’sworld through his/her works, the current show at Foresight32 ArtGallery demonstrates the allure of group exhibitions.

In a fresh combination of nine international andlocal artists, at “A Shout out from my City 2” everyone is bound tofind a favourite.

The works by French, American, Jordanian,Venezuelan, German and Spanish artists differ in style and subject, butthe artists selected by the gallery reveal common themes or technicalapproaches. The exhibition generally strikes a good balance betweencommon grounds and varied artist, but the pop-art inspired portraits byDutch Monique Van Steen are slightly disconnected from the other worksthrough their hanging and visual appearance. And while all otherartists show a whole body of works, French Stephane Moscato seemsunderrepresented with his single piece.

The exhibition title introduces one of its majorthemes: the city. The local artist and architect Rawan Kakishreprocesses Amman’s urban cityscape. On large steel planks of a rustybrown colour that hint at Jordan’s warm, dusty earth, she creates apanorama view of downtown houses using photographs, newspaper cut-outsand mosaic patterns, combined with interventions in paint. In hercollage, she distorts perspective in order to convey the lively,crowded and chaotic atmosphere of the area.

With her keen architectural eye, she cleverlycombines the industrial material - steel - with scraps gathered fromeveryday life, highlighting the charm of the run-down buildings of oldAmman.

German Markus Haub’s works also recreate the cityarchitecture and flair. Haub digitally and manually manipulates hisphotographs of European cities such as Monte Carlo or Berlin. He usesbright paint as highlights in his black-and white photographs, whichcontrast with the monochrome, smooth industrial surfaces of the modernarchitecture.

Photographs also form the basis of Jordanian HaniHourani’s works. A wide canvas shows a picket fence with reliefs ofglossy black paint. Hourani concentrates on the material texture ofwood: its fibre’s organic patterns and the bark’s rough feel. In hisminiatures, the patterns become more abstract and the composition isdominated by bright graphic lines of red and green.

French artist Viviane Michel moves betweenrepresentation and abstraction. She records her daily life in verses ofsquiggly handwriting on her mixed-media canvases. Colours and flowersswirl with the words, the poetry and dreaminess contained only bysmaller rectangular frames within the picture.

Michel has her loose, gestural handwriting in commonwith Italian Albert Coma. In his life drawing executed with blackcharcoal on natural linen canvases or ink on beige paper, he sketchesthe nude human figure. With great knowledge of the power of elegant,free-flowing lines, he manages to capture his models in variouspostures and movements.

American artist Matt Sesow and Venezuelan Ierene Bouuse archaic figures and aggressive colours in an innocent, almostchildlike portrayal of violence. Sesow’s simplified little monsters,children and animals have some similarity to voodoo figures; they boastsharp teeth and bulging eyes. Bou’s human figures speak of pain andendured violence. The bright colours and naïve style create theimpression of a child’s nightmares; a crying Jesus’ head is crownedwith thick thorns and dripping paint, alluding to his blood and tears.

There is still more to be discovered of the city, the human figure, dreams, violence and poetry in this collective exhibition.

The artworks will be on display until May 1.

8 April 2011