Dubai December 2010 – Artspace Gallery is pleased to be showcasing an innovative selection of works by two inspiring Saudi figures Lulwah Al Homoud and Noha Al Sharif at an exhibition that is taking place from the 13th of December to the 8th of January 2010.
Noha Al-Sharif lives in Jeddah and is the youngest artist participating in ‘Edge of Arabia’. In 2004 she graduated from the Jeddah School of Fine Arts with a BA and has recently completed her MA. Al-Sharif has an interest in the representation of groups and the sculptural history of how different figures relate to each other.
Her inspiration for Humbly and Devout, her contribution to ‘Edge of Arabia’, was drawn both from her admiration of Henry Moore and her deep-rooted faith in Islam. Based on a photograph of women during prayer, these figures when seen together combine as if fingers in a hand. This is a reference both to the everyday regularity of prayer performed five times a day, and that praying as a group is religiously preferable to praying in isolation.
Lulwah is Saudi Arabian by nationality, yet has lived much of her life in the UK. She graduated with BA in Sociology from King Saud University, 1986 and achieved a BA with Honours in Visual Communication Design and a Major in Graphic Design from The American College, London in 1997. She was also the first Saudi to complete an MA from Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London.
From a young age Lulwah was drawn to calligraphy, and her work in ‘Edge of Arabia’ represents a deconstruction and recalibration of the basic calligraphic Arabic form. Al-Homoud has assigned numerical values to different letters and, having combined this with her appreciation of traditional geometries and the Vedic square, has formed a highly original and complex visual interpretation of the 99 names of God. With this work she reiterates the notion that God often communicates to us through language and has titled her series accordingly The Language of Existence with the word Allah written in accordance with her formulae.
The artist states: “I was trying to find a new way to understand the relationship between the Creator and the creation.”
