Fatma Al Ali in Beyond Emerging Artists 2024 | Abu Dhabi
Join the Beyond Emerging Artists 2024 exhibition, showcasing the work of three emerging artists from the UAE. This annual initiative offers a platform for artists to develop their practice and realize ambitious art projects. Over the course of a year-long mentorship program, curated by Lorenzo Fiaschi, the selected artists have received invaluable critical feedback and support, culminating in this dynamic group exhibition.
Taking place at Hall S, Manarat Al Saadiyat, from November 20–24, 2024, between 2–9 PM, this exhibition celebrates the creativity and innovation of the UAE’s next generation of artists. The works will remain on display for several months, extending the opportunity to experience these compelling pieces beyond the Abu Dhabi Art Fair, and will also be exhibited internationally.
Beyond Emerging Artists is supported by Friends of Abu Dhabi Art, who have been committed to nurturing art and culture in the emirate since 2021.
Fatma Al Ali presents ‘Once Upon a Pirate Coast‘, a multitaceted body of work that explores the British presence in the UAE prior to its unification, focusing on the shifting power dynamics and the stories of those who lived through these changes. Comprising three distinct but interconnected pieces, the work embodies a dialogue between history, art, and narrative.
Of Ships, Sails, and Misguided Labels critically engages with early 19th-century prints that depict the Arabian Gulf campaign of 1809, notably the attack on the Qawasim fleet in Ras Al Khaimah by the British East India Company and Royal Navy. Three Al Qasimi bases and over 80 vessels were destroyed by the operation. These reappraised visual representations are playfully altered; they are overlaid with text,
composed using typewriter, assuming the voice of the land as a witness to the events. The installation challenges archived colonial narratives about the campaign and reclaims the perspectives of the local population through the voice of the land, formerly lost to history.
I Read Their Words, but I Heard My Own is a sculptural piece made from a mix or desert and beach sand, fused with salt waler from the sea. This raw material becomes a canvas for text transferred from both Arab magazine excerpts and British newspaper articles, presenting two divergent accounts of the same history. Through tnis contrast, the piece highlights and emonasizes the complexity of truth in the documentation of history.
I Picked Up a Coin and Heard a Whisper is an audio piece, hidden amidst a pile of replicated coins from tne era, critiquing the slow erasure of Al Qawasim-minted currency, which was replaced first by Indian rupee and later, by a newly created Gulf rupee, under the British protectorate. The audio, again narrated by the voice of the land, speaks of the rise and fall or various powers throughout history. Visitors are invited to explore the coins and take one or two as a keepsake.
Together, these works form a commentary and critique on colonialism, memory, and the resilience of the land and its people, offering a nuanced view of the British presence in the region from 1820-1971