http://sharjahart.org/sharjah-art-foundation/exhibitions/hassan-sharif-a-retrospectiveDue to time constraints I revisited Sharjah to complete my visit to the Hassan Sharif exhibition at Sharjah Art Foundation. Al Mureijah Square is a collection of buildings that have been renovated and specifically built as exhibition spaces. The retrospective is divided and the viewer is guided through the spaces in a specific order, the gaze is controlled, ordered.Gallery 6 - Hassan's Atelier- an uncomfortable space, it felt like an intrusion to be inside without his express permission. It is clearly staged, presented in the way it was set up in his home but clearly out of context. (Links to the Brian O'Doherty Text 'Studio & Cube', must finish reading.) My question was why? Why did they feel the need to place a representation of his working space inside the gallery, did it provide validation? Proving that he was, in fact, an artist? It questions whether we need to see or know of an artists process to validate the work, is the research more important or the time taken to create? The time taken to consume the art is also variable and does or should the time things are created in impact the time it is consumed in? Can you dictate how long people take to consume the work?
Hassan's Atelier
Email, 2009, Mixed media, variable dimensions, Homage to Jos Clevers.
Email (2009) stuck me due to the contrast of the print plates, displayed as works in themselves, and the black prints in the perspex display box. The texture and colour variations of the copper, creating depth and mood; the sterile nature of the prints, somewhat reminiscent of the virtual mail they are named after. Perhaps harking back to the time of hand written letters, the mood and personable aspects of mail penned, sorted and delivered by hand.Gallery 5 - I'm an object maker
Visible from right to left: Spoons, 2015, copper tube, cable and spoons, 210 x 47 x 62 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Harp, 2014, bicycle wheel and iron wire, 105 x 58 x 62 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Hammer, 2014, hammer and wire, 115 x 58 x 30 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Artificial Leg, 2014, crutch and wire, 152 x 56 x 48 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Buffet, 2014, stainless steel and copper wire, 104 x 56 x 25 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (located on the floor). Spare parts, 2016, spare parts, copper wire and stainless steel wire, 210 x 325 x 20 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Copper, 2016, copper wire, 132 x 165 x 14 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (on facing wall opposite Spare Parts). Praylady 555, 2007, stainless steel and copper, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Simmer Ring, 2015, simmer rings and wire, 220 x 120 x 88 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (located in centre on photo on rear wall). Broom, 2016, broom and copper wire, 1070 x 315 x 10 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. 555, 2016, aluminium plates and copper wire, 320 x 320 x 240 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (partial view).
Visible from right to left: 555, 2016, aluminium plates and copper wire, 320 x 320 x 240 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Broom, 2016, broom and copper wire, 1070 x 315 x 10 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Video: Cotton, 2013, single channel HD video, colour, no sound, 8min 26 sec, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Jelly Fish, 2011, iron, papier-mâché, acrylic and glue, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Ladies and Gentlemen, 2014, ready-made sandals and shoes, rubber cable, cotton rope, papier-mâché and acrylic paint, 275 x 460 x 45 cm, courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York. Printer No. 1, 2015, wooden plinth, printer, cotton rope and photocopied paper, 475 x 190 x 200 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (hanging in centre).
Installations of repetitive artefacts bound, collated, ordered and arranged.I felt like they were maps of time, labour was intrinsic in the materials that are used and the process of construction. Sharif utilises the everyday object and subverts it in to art, reclaiming or perhaps simply claiming, the mundane in to the fine art.
Jute, 2016, jute and cotton rope, 170 x 240 x 30 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Jute (2016), this mass of knots drew me in to it. It feels intense, like time captured in a format. The repetition of knotting and binding, and also the visuality of space taken alongside the time.In terms inspiration this work moves me to a place of making, I want to bind and tie, to build a geometry from fibres that are not conducive to rigidity and linear forms. I want to physically create the sensual layers that ask to be touched and allow for movement in the sense that persons move around the city in the cyclic elements of routine. To embody the routine in a bound sensual way, to experience the touch of routine in the way that routine seems to touch us in the ethereal sense.Gallery 4 - Performance is goodThis gallery has images of performance, photographs, scripts and texts, so you are struck by the monumentality of the paper and yarn/string structure that hangs in the corner: Dictionary (2015). Pages from Arabic/English dictionary, taken and bound. So much of Sharif work involves binding together, in a messy, overwhelm, engulfing the spaces and the forms that originate.
Dictionary, 2015, glue, dictionary pages and cotton rope, 385 x 170 x 65 cm, courtesy of gb Agency.
The Mail, 1983, ink and pin holes on tracing paper on cardboard; pen and pencil on paper mounted on cardboard, 56 x 38 cm each, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Then I stepped around the quiet gallery, to be confronted by a wall of framed subtle pieces that depict lines, drawn or scratched from mail opened: The Mail (1983). The pieces are so reminiscent of the fractures I create in my sketchbooks, I try to photograph them but my reflection in the work hinders my collecting, metaphorically implanting myself in the work that I have just jumped in to. The repetition of the routine activity, opening letters, that create marks from the tools that are used to complete the task.
Trees - Walham Grow Road - London, 1983, paper, photographs, ink and pencil mounted on cardboard, 90.3 x 66cm, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, artist copy.
Finally as I round the end of the exhibition in this gallery space I encounter photographs of London taken by Sharif, as a pieces, documenting activity. The date is my 1st birthday, I would have been a short drive away from this spot, across London. The images (Trees-Walham Grow Road-London, 1983) are familiar as I have similar ones in the albums at my parents house, they are unframed, composition is not addressed, they are taken as record not as art or for display, simply to record and account of a happening. They are filled with nostalgia for me personally, of childhood and times past in a location that is familiar but no longer has that familiarity.Gallery 3 - I'm loyal to colour
Image 1, right to left: Slippers and Wire, 2009, slippers and copper wire, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Zip Fastener No 2, 2016, zippers and cotton rope, 245 x 322 x 12 com, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Electrical Cable, 2016, electrical cable and cotton rope, 1200 x 65 x 25 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Cable No 3, 2015, cable and cotton rope, 181 x 70 x 8 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Image 2, right to left: Playfulness No. 1, 2015, toys, papier-mâché, wire, cardboard and acrylic paint, dimensions variable, courtesy of gb Agency, Paris. Colours, 2016, cotton rope, acrylic paint and copper wire, 240 x 535 x 10 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Slippers and Wire, 2009, slippers and copper wire, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Zip Fastener No 2, 2016, zippers and cotton rope, 245 x 322 x 12 com, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Image 3, right to left: Zip Fastener No 2, 2016, zippers and cotton rope, 245 x 322 x 12 com, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (partial view). Electrical Cable, 2016, electrical cable and cotton rope, 1200 x 65 x 25 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Cable No 3, 2015, cable and cotton rope, 181 x 70 x 8 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Slippers and Wire, 2009, slippers and copper wire, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Combs, 2016, ready-made plastic combs and copper wire, 275 x 200 x 70 cm, courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York (partial view). Rug 6, 2014, rug, tempera, glue and copper wire, 304 x 195 x 32 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Image 4, right to left: Plastic Cups and Coir, 1999, plastic and coir, 170 x 150 x 80 cm, courtesy of gb Agency, Paris. Slippers and Wire, 2009, slippers and copper wire, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Playfulness No. 1, 2015, toys, papier-mâché, wire, cardboard and acrylic paint, dimensions variable, courtesy of gb Agency, Paris.
Images on Tracing Paper, 2015, tracing paper, cotton thread and cardboard, 7 x 86 x 33 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Combs, 2016, ready-made plastic combs and copper wire, 275 x 200 x 70 cm, courtesy of Alexander Gray Associates, New York (detail)
Upon entering the gallery aptly named 'loyal to colour' you are confronted with masses of accumulated goods, curated in to large mass sculptural forms filling the spaces. Interesting that the colours evident in the pieces are actually quite restricted, whether this is a conscious decision made by the artist I'm not sure, but the effect is quite affronting. Perhaps it is simply a reflection on the limited dyes available for plastic manufacturing in the region - but it remarkably creates a unified presentation of apparently single work pieces.Gallery 2 - My little tiny boxThe smallest of the galleries, filled with what felt like trinket works, experiments that perhaps never expanded in to larger pieces or due to the ethics of the artist were held back in to single works.
Left: Cotton Rope No 6, 2012, cotton rope and notebook, 43 x 59 x 10 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Right: Book of Dresses, 2016, dresses and cotton thread, 16 x 48 x 30 cm (closed), 13 x 78 x 30 cm (open), courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
The knots and materials, binding books, physically containing the information, the way words bind narratives in to archives.
Left: Sewing Notebook No 1, 1983-2006, notebook and jute rope, 22 x 16 x 10, Sharjah Art Foundation Collection. Right: Sewing Notebook No 2, 1983/2006, notebook and jute rope, 22 x 15.5 x 10 cm, Sharjah Art Foundation Collection.
Sandpaper, Pencil, Sharpener, 1982/2007, photographs mounted on cardboard, 59.5 x 42.5 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Sandpaper, Pencil, Sharpener, 1982/2007, plastic bags containing sand paper, pencil shaving, pencils and steel sharpeners; cardboard, cloth, glue, jute rope, cotton thread, cotton rope and marker, 130 x 60 x 8cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Art Map, 2012, cardboard and varnish, dimensions variable, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
The books are all closed, containing the contents, if there is any, from the viewer, alluding to the journals of teenagers, or secret files of governments.Gallery 1 - ...so I created a semi systemThe last gallery felt like the most overwhelming. Monochrome works filling the walls, they look like the inner workings of an designers brain, pages from a sketchbook. Repetitive designs for geometries that were pushed through in to motifs created in to wooden structures or, my personal favourite, woven in to rugs
Iching, undated, ink and pencil on paper, 59.5 x 42 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
January 2013, 2013, ink and pencil on paper; acrylic on canvas, 59.5 x 42 cm each; 60 x 30 x 4 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate (partial view).
The shear volume of work was impressive and a visual reference to the dedication Sharif put in to amassing his work.
Squares No. 1, 2014, carpet, 188 x 68 x 1 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Image 1: Rhomboid Forms, 2012, ink and pencil on paper, 59.5 x 42 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Image 2: Movement of Square's Side, 1985, ink and pencil on paper, 32.5 x 49.9 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Eight Points Angular Lines - Part 2, 2013, pencil on paper; wood, glue and nails, 59.5 x 42 cm; 90 x 58.5 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
Lines, 2010, ink and pencil on paper, 59.5 x 42 cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate. Lines No. 2, 2014, carpet, 234 x 66 x 1cm, courtesy of Hassan Sharif Estate.
The translation from fragmented forms in to clean woven rugs. The technical construction done by commissioned parties, some of the linear aspects of the geometries are lost to the fluidity of the fibres.The scale of this retrospective is intense, Sharif is a 'Local Legend' and it feels right to have this exhibition here in Sharjah, I do wonder how far his reach will go though, I hope he won't be lost to the larger names in the global art scene.