Transcendence - The Journey to finding light
Lady in the Dark, 2021. Maythaa Mohammed Al Shamsi, UAE Photography. Courtesy of Khaleeji Art Museum.
entering a tunnel on family road trips was always an exhilarating experience for us. As children, darkness was our worst enemy. What we imagined lingered in the crevices of the unknown sent shivers down our spines. That is why we slept with a nightlight on for much of our childhood; to keep the otherworldly creatures that we had drawn up in our minds away, hidden in the shadows, where they belonged. However, the darkness of tunnels, surprisingly, did not scare us. Instead, it made us jump with our siblings in excitement and joyfully let out an elongated “noooooor” (light) as we literally approached the light at the end of the tunnel. The sight of us shouting together in glee in the backseat never failed to put a smile on our parents’ faces.
perhaps because it is an escape to happier times, when the world was okay, or perhaps because it reminds us of a reassuring truth: That there is, in fact, a light at the end of every tunnel, no matter how far away it seems, and that only by having faith in eventually reaching it and trusting others to help us reach it, will we be able to overcome darkness of any kind.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the world has been enveloped in gloom. We are all afraid of the monstrous virus that lingers in the shadows that has kept us away from our loved ones. But what has kept us going is our inherited knowledge that this crisis,
Untitled by Kawthar Smaren and Suliman Hilal, 2021. Saudi Arabia Acrylic paint on convex mirror. Courtesy of Khaleeji Art Museum.
like health crises before it, will eventually pass, and that the world will regain its color. What has kept us going is our faith in fellow man, after Allah, to carry us through this crisis, whether it is by inventing a vaccine, or by practicing caution that will result in a healing butterfly effect, or by simply being there for us in this dark time, and guiding us through it, until we reach the light. We now know why we were not afraid of darkness of the tunnel, it was because we had people with us that we loved, trusted and had faith in; people like our parents and siblings.
Human connections, whether they are experienced from a distance or not, during the last two years, have emerged as essential to the survival of this crisis. Their intrinsic value has been depicted in works by of Gulf artists that were created during the pandemic. In the Khaleeji Art Museum’s latest group art exhibition Transcendence, the need for this connection is highlighted. Emirati artist Maythaa Al Shamsi’s Lady in the Dark, for example, depicts the internal struggles that is born out of going through challenging experiences, like COVID-19, alone.
Do You See Me ? Look at Me, 2021. Maryam Al Wazzan, Kuwait. Photography. Courtesy of Khaleeji Art Museum.
Saudi artists Kawthar Smaren and Suliman Hilal’s Untitled, which is a convex mirror that carries a statement that reads, “souls are farther than you think they are” in Arabic, emphasizes the physical distance the COVID-19 crisis has enforced on us, and raises the question of which soul has become closest to you during the crisis. Do You See Me? Look at Me by Maryam Alwazzan from Kuwait, is a photography series that revolves around learning to communicate with others without being in the same space as they are in.
The work expresses the following, “I am here, do you see me? Close your eyes and let your heart look at me.” In the end, this global experience, as these works exhibited in Transcendence showcase, has taught us an important lesson: Only we can see each other through the darkness of
this crisis.
Do You See Me ? Look at Me, 2021. Maryam Al Wazzan, Kuwait. Photography. Courtesy of Khaleeji Art Museum.
