Jaber AlAzmeh

Border-Lines

This body of work is an exploration into the emerging realities of the injured and divided world we live in. From the tyranny of states and the striated spaces they create, to the frantic northward migration generated by global capitalism, images of drowning dreams, and surveillance of empty spaces, attempts to capture the madness that surrounds us while searching for nomadic traces that defy the status quo.

The narrative begins with a figurative visual exploration of the madness of war, surveillance, barrel bombs/oil barrels, and tunnelled futile escapes. The folly of war is then contrasted with nationalist pride, border control, and chauvinistic confines.

Nationalism unfolds into fantasies of escape and lines of flight, which in turn lead to the mundane scenes that signify the decadence of consumerism and main stream media.

Insisting on finding the courage it takes to live and believe, hope and survival, the narrative finally concludes with the will to survive, bright visions of magnificent beauty in space and light.

The Works

Exhibitions

Solo - Green Art Gallery, Dubai

Exhibition Press Release:

Green Art Gallery is pleased to present Jaber Al Azmeh’s fifth solo at the Gallery.

Where his previous series Wounds (2012) tackled the emotional ramifications of the uprising in Syria, and Ba’ath (2014) addressed the lack of freedom speech as the conflict unfolded, Border-lines takes on a more aerial perspective, exploring both the roots of global crisis and its implications.

There is a line that cuts through this latest body of work. Quickly, it becomes apparent that the line is a compositional aspect and curatorial instrument of the exhibition. Upon closer inspection, however, that equatorial line burns at the very partition between dream and reality, conscious and unconscious. In spite of the appearance of calmness and minimalism, there is a screaming silence to these images.

The show launches with an Orwellian feel – a cluster of photographs in barren deserts, all of which speak of consumerist, capitalist cultures and snapshots of global systems that have ostensibly failed. Those images of a gigantic, rusted billboard void of a message; row upon row of identical, seemingly socialist houses empty of emotion; and a chain of frozen buses, together question our contemporary reality.

The will for survival is exemplified in the next set of images: haphazard tire tracks are marked in the sand and indicate a routing in all directions. Rendered in various sizes, perhaps to indicate the diverse volumes of global migration, the images are predominantly consumed by the unattainable, unknown horizon to signify the biggest question here: where are we going? Al Azmeh answers this by punctuating the exhibition with imagery that interrogates the insanity of war: surveillance cameras, oil barrels, border patrols and tunnels. Are these symbolic of an era of paranoid reign? Are they contemporary representations of nationalism? A sense of fear and alarm permeates this set before Al Azmeh moves on to the last segment: the purgatorial vastness of the desert. It is a hopeful close to a charged exhibition, perhaps even a Freudian defence mechanism. Though they speak of the unknown, the soft curves of the desert soothe a displaced, confused self. There is a solace, but in this visual language, the limitless expanse speaks of the power of hope. This is Al Azmeh’s self-portrait, but it is also that of many.

Collective exhibition

• Instituto Tomie Ohtake, "Taswir" São Paulo, Brazil 2019

• Villa Empain - Fondation Boghossian, Brussles, Belgium 2017

• Institut du monde arabe - Biennial of photographers of the contemporary Arab world, Paris, France 2017

Exhibition Press Release:

The 4th edition of the ‘Biennale des photographes du monde arabe contemporain’ will be held at the Institut du Monde Arabe and in eight other Paris locations, including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, la Cité Internationale des Arts, the 4th arrondissement town hall and five art galleries.

The work on display offers a diverse and multi-layered perspective of the Arab world as seen by contemporary photographers: politically engaged, funny, poetic, dark or affectionate.

Highlights

One of the finalist projects at the SOVEREIGN MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA ART PRIZE 2016

Selected Press