As part of its fall 2023 program, the Sharjah Art Foundation is organizing an exhibition by artists Labina Hamid and Magda Stawarska under the title “Concerted Time – Deep Water,” from October 29 to January 28, 2024, in the art buildings in Al Mureij Square.
“Concerted Time – Deep Water” is the first exhibition for the two artists in the region, and it comes as an extension of their artistic cooperation over many years, as it includes a group of works that have been reimagined in response to the urban and acoustic landscape of the Emirate of Sharjah, and the feelings that the city evokes related to its description of being adjacent to the sea, in addition to… In addition to four new works commissioned by the institution and others recently produced by the two artists.
Through works ranging from installation, paintings, and sound, the exhibition highlights Hamid and Stawarska’s ongoing exploration of the themes of language and memory, whether through their individual or joint artistic practice. In this regard, the exhibition’s curator, Omar Khalif, said, “We can understand the results of the joint work between Labina and Majda through the multimedia collection.” In the exhibition, the two artists use painting, poetry, language and sound to reveal their own history and memories on the one hand, and those of the city of Sharjah on the other hand.”
The collaboration between the two artists goes back nearly two decades, and their joint practice combined their deep interest in the medium of sound and their research in human history. Hamid, born in Zanzibar in 1954, is known for her different artistic approach, whether in her writing, paintings, or installation works, in which she focuses on depicting Scenes of everyday life that are often overlooked. She is one of the pioneering artists and founders of the British Black Art movement in the 1980s, and remains a pivotal figure in the ongoing expressions of the black experience and women’s creativity within the United Kingdom. While Stawarska, “born in Poland 1976,” explores the theme of memory through… Her practice combines sound, performance, animation, and photography, resulting from the process of “inner listening,” which includes listening to cities and responding to them in dialogue with their residents.
The exhibition will witness an imaginary show entitled “Zanzibar – 1998-2023”, which is a series of paintings drawn by Hamid within an audio installation created by Stawarska, through which she reconstructs the journeys of return that parallel a lifetime, in the form of a sensory encounter with visitors invited to listen and wander. In order to experience a memory unfolding in front of them elsewhere in the exhibition, the artist created movement in the collected objects to appear as if they were sculptures, leading the spectators to geographical features connected to the sea.
