الجمعة، 9 يوليو 2021

Think local: Meet the young creative pushing Saudi culture into the mainstream

Author: 
Fri, 2021-07-09 09:21

DUBAI: Not only are young Saudis increasingly expressing their talent within their own country, they are now beginning to export it abroad. Take Rayan Nawawi, the 32-year-old Saudi photographer, and co-founder and creative director of Jeddah’s Nawawi Studio.

His passion for photography was inherited from his father. After graduating from high school in Jeddah, Nawawi studied finance at the University of Business and Technology (UBT) in his hometown. But his love of art, and the lack of opportunities in the field in the Kingdom at the time, led him to move to the United States.

“I always liked experimenting with colors — matching shapes, colors and designs together,” Nawawi told Arab News. “I liked design and how this field was not typical. When you add something creative to a project, it is forever changed.”




His passion for photography was inherited from his father. (Supplied)

So, he followed his heart, which took him all the way to study for a master’s degree at the San Francisco Academy of Art University, focusing on advertising and art direction, with elective classes in photography. “I was doing photography, but I felt I needed to find something that looked interesting,” he explained. “There was a story missing. I wanted to use visuals more, which is why I studied advertising. It’s the art of business.”

As he became more proficient, Nawawi began to focus on integrating various elements of Saudi Arabian culture and design — particularly colors and shapes — into his projects.

Following his studies in the US, he moved back home and began working full-time as an art director in a multinational agency. A year later, the hectic deadlines and a lack of direction led him to quit. “I felt my work was missing a vital cultural aspect,” he noted. So, he set up as a freelance art director and photographer.




Saudi Arabia is providing Nawawi with plenty of inspiration. (Supplied)

After a couple of months, Nawawi and his brother Wail — who had pursued studies in business and marketing — founded Nawawi Studio in Jeddah. Five years on, the enterprise is thriving.

“I started adding more local touches (to my work) to make it more interesting and show it to the world,” Nawawi explained. “Thankfully, we’re now working with international and local clients.”

Slowly but surely, brands began signing up — including a successful project as part of Nike x Vice’s “Summer of White” campaign in 2017, carried out in collaboration with the Lebanese artist Ali Cha’aban, focusing on Nike’s Air Max 97 sneakers. Nawawi was pleasantly surprised at the positive feedback and reactions from his international audience.




As he became more proficient, Nawawi began to focus on integrating various elements of Saudi Arabian culture and design — particularly colors and shapes — into his projects. (Supplied)

“It may look normal to us in Saudi Arabia, but it was different to everyone outside the Arab world because you can see the real culture within it,” he said. “I went back to thinking about life in the 1990s, when they would put laundry on the rooftops to dry, adorned with large satellites. I included these in the visuals.” That project, which Nawawi named “Satellite Culture,” depicted traditional Saudi clothing as well, including the iconic white thobe.

The thobe was also a central part of “The Mythical Practice of Building Domes,” a collaboration between Nawawi, Cha’aban, and Saudi artist Khalid Zahid for the Saudi Art Council’s non-profit initiative 21,39’s “Al Obhour” exhibition.

“The Mythical Practice of Building Domes” had a Renaissance-inspired Hijazi look that included a number of local elements, such as the Hijazi dome. “My role in this project was executing the creative aspect, taking pictures and putting images together while choosing the colors and manipulating them,” Nawawi explained. “It showed the culture of the Hijazi look in terms of clothes and movements. We were inspired by the church ceilings of the Renaissance era, so we combined that style with our culture to give it a Hijazi twist.”




Slowly but surely, brands began signing up — including a successful project as part of Nike x Vice’s “Summer of White” campaign in 2017, carried out in collaboration with the Lebanese artist Ali Cha’aban, focusing on Nike’s Air Max 97 sneakers. (Supplied)

Nawawi believes the Kingdom has come a long way in the field since his youth in Jeddah, thanks in large part to the country’s renewed focus on arts and entertainment and Saudi Vision 2030. “Everything has changed,” he told Arab News. “They started to appreciate the art scene more, from music and theatre, to photography and fashion, and all those aspects that relate to entertainment. I’ve started to see more people, mostly from the younger generation, getting into this field, and they’re excited about it.” Nawawi is confident that Saudi Arabia’s homegrown talent will mature and become recognized across the rest of the world in the next few years.

During his time in the US, Nawawi came across many stereotypes about his country, he said, something which drives his ambition to ensure that all elements of the Kingdom — from its geography to its traditions and culture — are represented internationally. Today, the outside world is beginning to look at the Kingdom and truly appreciate what it has to offer, he believes.




The thobe was also a central part of “The Mythical Practice of Building Domes.” (Supplied)

Certainly, Saudi Arabia is providing Nawawi with plenty of inspiration. He cited a recent three-day trip to Abha, the capital city of Asir Province near the Red Sea, as an example. The mountains of the Asir National Park are home to birds and juniper forests. For Nawawi, this was the perfect location for a campaign he worked on with the international fashion brand Fendi.

“We were shooting just outside Asir,” he said. “The campaign focused on local Saudi creativity, so all of the visuals showcase Asir — and it was featured in Vogue Arabia.”

Nawawi has also worked with Harper’s Bazaar, Gucci and Bulgari, among others.

“I always tell people that if you have a passion, you have to follow it,” he concluded. “My teacher once told me: ‘If you like something and you are passionate about it, keep experimenting with it until magic happens.’”

Main category: 
https://ift.tt/36DRyPX July 09, 2021 at 07:53AM

Playwright Sara Shaarawi on her ‘revenge drama’ ‘Niqabi Ninja’

Fri, 2021-07-09 08:54

AMSTERDAM: “It’s not a happy story.” Scotland-based Cairo-born playwright Sara Shaarawi is talking about “Niqabi Ninja,” her two-person play that is currently being ‘staged’ in London as part of Shubbak Festival — a celebration of contemporary Arab arts and culture — before moving on to five cities in Scotland. “It’s a revenge drama.”

The origins of “Niqabi Ninja” lie in a monologue Shaarawi created having been asked to write a piece on women in the Egyptian revolution of 2011. At first, Shaarawi says, she was “wary, particularly because I wasn’t one of them.” She had been in Cairo at the time of revolution, but “I wasn’t on the frontline.”

“I’m not trying to exploit anyone’s trauma to make audience’s feel bad or guilty — I’m not into that type of theater at all,” she stresses. “And I didn’t want to play into the Western gaze of people from the Middle East and North Africa — the very narrow roles of refugee, or revolutionary, or terrorist — I didn’t want to slot into that.”




“Niqabi Ninja” is a two-person play that is currently being ‘staged’ in London as part of Shubbak Festival. (Supplied)

But having heard about the mob sexual assaults that were rife in and around Tahrir Square at the time of the uprising, and in many of the protests over the years that followed, she decided to write a piece “about a young woman who’s (listing) all of the things that have happened to her throughout her life — the constant stares and cat calls and humiliation and objectification and sexualization — and who decides, when the mob sexual assaults happen, to buy a niqab and go out there and get her revenge.”

The monologue was well-received, and Shaarawi was encouraged to turn it into an hour-long piece, which is when it began to morph into its current form.




In “Niqabi Ninja,” Hana, an illustrator who is creating a comic book about all of her scariest experiences of being sexualized or objectified by men,. (Supplied)

“I’d written the monologue in a moment of fury,” Shaarawi says. “But I realized that what I was interested in, and what I’m trying to do, is connect how we’ve normalized behaviors like commenting on a stranger’s body… these things that people see as harmless because they haven’t physically hurt you, these things where we’ve said, ‘Well, boys will be boys. This is how things are.’ And by normalizing all of this, of course something like the mob sexual assaults in Tahrir were going to happen. It’s the natural end (when) they keep getting away with it until they think they can do whatever they want. That’s really what the play became about.”

In “Niqabi Ninja,” Hana, an illustrator who is creating a comic book about all of her scariest experiences of being sexualized or objectified by men, especially in public spaces, is ‘in conversation’ with the title character she has created, who is, Shaarawi says, “her shadow self, her fantastical alter ego — incredibly violent, really egging her on. A character that says all the things she wouldn’t say, basically. A narcissistic superhero. She’s very obsessed about how she looks and what weapons she’s going to have and what she’s going to do to the men —smashing people’s faces in and stuff like that. It’s a really dark character. But it’s a fantasy, at the end of the day. The whole play is really about her journey to becoming this superhero vigilante that she’s created in her head. So by the end she becomes the Niqabi Ninja.” She pauses. “Spoiler, sorry.”




The audience is equipped with MP3 players and headphones and guided through a set route while listening to a recording of the play performed by Juliana Yazbeck. (Supplied)

The current ‘theater’ for “Niqabi Ninja” is actually the city streets. The audience is equipped with MP3 players and headphones and guided through a set route while listening to a recording of the play performed by Rebecca Banatvala and Juliana Yazbeck, soundtracked by Egyptian composer and oudist BalQeis. The route is dotted with illustrations from Hana’s comic book by Egyptian artist Gehan Mounir.

As Shaarawi said, “Niqabi Ninja” is not a happy story. But there is humor in it, albeit very dark. And Shaarawi takes pains to stress that it is a fantasy, rather than a proposal for a practical solution to the issues it addresses.




The audience is equipped with MP3 players and headphones and guided through a set route while listening to a recording of the play performed by Rebecca Banatvala. (Supplied)

Still, even though the play was written in response to a very particular moment in Egypt, it has clearly resonated with women from outside of the Arab world too. And while any writer should be proud that their work can strike a chord with so many, Shaarawi isn’t especially glad about it.

“Every year the subject matter is still urgent and relevant. It just doesn’t stop,” she says. “Every reading it’s had, both in Scotland and in London, women come up to me and thank me afterwards. No matter what background or heritage they have, they relate to it. It has that universality. Its themes are still fresh in our experience, and that makes me really sad.”

Main category: 
https://ift.tt/3hqK74v July 09, 2021 at 07:17AM

THE BREAKDOWN- Lebanese photographer Dia Mrad discusses ‘Trees of Apocalypse’

Author: 
Fri, 2021-07-09 08:47

DUBAI: There have been many photographers from newspapers going down every weekend to the silos at the port, but I think what was very special about my visit was how much of me there was in it. It really was about the roads that I took and the experiences that I had while I was there. I think this is what other photographers didn’t have, partly because of the chance I got with a French engineer named Emmanuel. We got pretty close and even went inside one of the silos, which is something not a lot of photographers have done.

The experience really started with Emmanuel, who contacted me and asked if I would like to join him on his investigation, based on laser scans. We had to do several scans and compare them to see if the structure is moving. When I first when down there, it was really overwhelming. It was a lot to take in. That’s why I took a lot of shots. It’s my method. I go back to them later and analyze what I have. When the explosion happened, I was in the middle of it, and the first thing that I did was take my camera out and start shooting photos. Honestly, I thought we were going to die.

The trees were one of the most captivating scenes over there, in what I call ‘the desert of Beirut.’ There’s, like, a road between them. It’s as if they are guarding the site. Everything after them is hell — it’s an apocalyptic scene. When you are walking towards them, you get this overwhelming feeling, because the trees are so big. They’re like giants with big hands, telling us to stay away.

I don’t see it as something hopeful or something negative. It’s a very factual, real representation. You can take it to a different meaning by talking about the silos. In a sense, they protected everything that was beyond them. These trees were on the opposite side of the blast and though they’re still standing — like a big part of the city — they are dead on the inside

Main category: 
https://ift.tt/2TKS5Na July 09, 2021 at 06:53AM

الخميس، 8 يوليو 2021

What We Are Reading Today: Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy’s Turning Point

Author: 
Arab News
ID: 
1625781498233947500
Fri, 2021-07-09 00:57

Author: Gyan Prakash

On the night of June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India, suspending constitutional rights and rounding up her political opponents in midnight raids across the country. In the 21 harrowing months that followed, her regime unleashed a brutal campaign of coercion and intimidation, arresting and torturing people by the tens of thousands, razing slums, and imposing compulsory sterilization on the poor. Emergency Chronicles provides the first comprehensive account of this understudied episode in India’s modern history.
Gyan Prakash strips away the comfortable myth that the Emergency was an isolated event brought on solely by Gandhi’s desire to cling to power, arguing that it was as much the product of Indian democracy’s troubled relationship with popular politics.
Drawing on archival records, private papers and letters, published sources, film and literary materials, and interviews with victims and perpetrators, Prakash traces the Emergency’s origins to the moment of India’s independence in 1947, revealing how the unfulfilled promise of democratic transformation upset the fine balance between state power and civil rights. He vividly depicts the unfolding of a political crisis that culminated in widespread popular unrest, which Gandhi sought to crush by paradoxically using the law to suspend lawful rights. Her failure to preserve the existing political order had lasting and unforeseen repercussions, opening the door for caste politics and Hindu nationalism.
Placing the Emergency within the broader global history of democracy, this gripping book offers invaluable lessons for us today as the world once again confronts the dangers of rising authoritarianism and populist nationalism.

Main category: 
What We Are Reading Today: American Kingpin by NicK BiltonWhat We Are Reading Today: Encounters with Euclid: How an Ancient Greek Geometry Text Shaped the World https://ift.tt/3e0polZ July 08, 2021 at 10:58PM

Bella Hadid stuns at Chopard’s party at Cannes Film Festival

Thu, 2021-07-08 12:38

DUBAI: Following her glamorous red-carpet look earlier this week, part-Palestinian model Bella Hadid has once again wowed the audience at Chopard’s party during the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. 

The 24-year-old catwalk star wore a black and white mini dress with feather detailing by French multinational high fashion house Lanvin. Her gown featured black sheer sleeves. 




Bella Hadid wore a black and white mini dress with feather detailing. (Getty)

Hadid accessorized her look with a dazzling emerald pieces from the Swiss label. 

Besides Hadid, the after party included Czech supermodel Eva Herzigova, British actress Helen Mirren and South African model Candice Swanepoel. 

The event was also attended by Dubai-based model Elvira Jain, who wore a pink dress by Dubai label Dina Melwani. 




Elvira Jain wore a gown by Dubai label Dina Melwani. (Getty)

During the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday, Hadid stepped out in a vintage white Jean Paul Gaultier column gown with a black sheer train and halter-neck. 

She wore her hair up in a bun and accessorized with glittering Chopard jewelry, including white gold earrings with two pear-shaped diamonds.

Main category: 
https://ift.tt/3AAVvCF July 08, 2021 at 10:47AM

Zuhair Murad’s fall 2021 couture collection an ode to unabashed glamour

Author: 
Thu, 2021-07-08 11:37

PARIS: Lebanese fashion designer Zuhair Murad on Wednesday staged his first physical runway presentation since the start of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with an outdoor event at Paris’ Lycee Louis-le-Grand.

The front row for his fall 2021 couture show was packed with media representatives and his devoted clients – which include A-list celebrities and royals – who all had to undergo temperature checks for virus symptoms in order to gain entry to the venue.




Murad embellished rich fabrics such as velvet, duchesse satin, organza, and chiffon in a Murano glass-inspired color palette. (Getty)

The prestigious French secondary school’s courtyard served as an idyllic setting for the glamorous collection, inspired by Venice.

Ras Baalbek-born Murad embellished rich fabrics such as velvet, duchesse satin, organza, and chiffon in a Murano glass-inspired color palette of sapphire, emerald, and ruby with sequins and beads reminiscent of opulent chandeliers on a palazzo on the Grand Canal.




The prestigious French secondary school’s courtyard served as an idyllic setting for the glamorous collection, inspired by Venice. (Getty)

The collection’s intricate embroidery highlighted why Murad required two ateliers fully-staffed with petites-mains – in Beirut and Paris – to complete his creations. One dress was completely painted with marble motifs by hand.

On theme, the 49-year-old designer also incorporated beaded masquerade masks, similar to those worn during the Venice carnival, into the offering.




Murad closed the show with a glamorous, heavily embellished bridal gown with beaded, quarter-length sleeves, and intricate jewel-like detailing. (Getty)

Murad’s studio has received commissions for the Cannes Film Festival, currently underway in the south of France. The sleeveless dress embroidered all over with multi-colored sequins and featuring matching opera gloves was perfect for the red carpet and the metallic gold jumpsuit with head-to-toe crystal fringing ideal for an exclusive after-party.

A sinewy, midnight black lace and fishnet minidress with a billowing taffeta cape practically screamed, “wear me now, Bella Hadid.”

Murad closed the show with a glamorous, heavily embellished bridal gown with beaded, quarter-length sleeves, and intricate jewel-like detailing.

Weddings are moving forward among Murad’s loyal clientele – Victoria’s Secret model and bride-to-be Jasmine Tookes, who was sat front row, hinted that she could be walking down the aisle in one of his creations.

In a social media post, Tookes, who got engaged to Juan David Borrero in September, said: “Such a pleasure to be in Paris and watch my favorite designer @zuhairmuradofficial. Ten years ago, I used to walk his couture shows and now I wear his dresses on almost every red carpet. Something even more special is coming very soon.”

Main category: 
https://ift.tt/3yAgYJZ July 08, 2021 at 10:01AM

Arab influencers, designers make their mark on Cannes red carpet

Author: 
Thu, 2021-07-08 10:26

DUBAI: The Cannes Film Festival has recently become one of the world’s hottest topics.

The prestigious event on Tuesday rolled out the red carpet for the first time in more than two years. The occasion drew a wide spectrum of film luminaries back to the French resort to celebrate the festival, canceled last year due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Over the past two days, Arab influencers and designers have been grabbing the limelight with their show-stopping looks, including Dubai-based fashion blogger Ola Farahat.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Ola (@olafarahat)

The influencer on Wednesday shared pictures of her red-carpet glamor, opting for a flowy strapless orange gown by Italian fashion label Alberta Ferretti and accessorizing her look with jewelry by French luxury house Boucheron.

Writing on social media, Farahat said: “Heading to the red carpet wearing @boucheron jewlery @albertaferretti dress (my all-time favorite).”

Another influencer that jetted into Cannes was Kuwaiti social media star Fatima Almomen.

She wore a form-fitting, metallic “gazar column gown” with a pleated iridescent holographic organza overskirt by Lebanese-Italian designer Tony Ward. The dress was from the creative’s newly released fall/winter 2021-22 collection.

Dubai-based model Elvira Jain wore a creamy white couture pearl-embellished ensemble from Dubai designer Furne Amato. The fairytale-inspired avant-garde dress was part of Amato’s latest spring/summer 2021 collection and entirely handwoven.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Elvira Jain (@elvirajain)

The ensemble featured a closed-neck full pearl detailing with a volumized ruffled train in tulle. The floor-length dress trickled around her figure, and she teased with a sleek low pony as she strutted and posed for snaps.

Dubai-based influencer Farhana Body showed off a larger-than-life canary yellow ballgown by Omani label Atelier Zuhra.




Dubai-based influencer Farhana Body showed off a larger-than-life canary yellow ballgown by Omani label Atelier Zuhra. (AFP)

Lebanon’s Elie Saab had a dominant role on the festival’s red carpet. During the opening ceremony, actress and producer Melita Toscan du Plantier and German model Lorena Rae championed his designs.




Rae wore a heavily embellished dress with feather detailing. (AFP)

Du Plantier stepped out in a sea green, sequined look, while Rae wore a heavily embellished dress with feather detailing.

Main category: 
https://ift.tt/3xpc4iY July 08, 2021 at 08:37AM

Tamer Al-Ahmar: The Jordanian artist paying homage to Arab divas

Author: 
Thu, 2021-07-08 09:50

PARIS: The popular Amman-based digital artist Tamer Al-Ahmar’s work pays tribute to the great divas of Arabic music, including Asmahan, Sabah, Fairuz, Umm Kulthum, and Warda.

Al-Ahmar is the definition of a self-taught artist. Despite his childhood passion for drawing, he never really considered the possibility of turning it into a career. “In Jordan, there is a deeply rooted stereotype that is still undoubtedly upheld today, whereby one cannot make a living through art,” he explains. “I strongly believed that I had talent, but by no means did I take this interest seriously. I never took lessons or workshops to improve my skills.”

But in 2009, Al-Ahmar discovered the world of digital art. “In the beginning, I started drawing characters and caricatures of my friends. But gradually, by dint of working and experimenting, my talent developed and reached a professional level,” he says. “Afterwards, I went into the comic books industry”.




Tamer Al-Ahmar is a digital artist. (Supplied)

Four years later, Al-Ahmar began to carve out his niche. “This happened at a noteworthy time in my life. Back then I was starting to take a great interest in Arab culture, be it music, cinema or architecture,” he explains. He began drawing pictures of the much-feted late Syrian singer Asmahan, who ranks among the region’s most important cultural figures of the 20th century. “Asmahan bewitched me. Her destiny was fascinating, but also tragic,” Al-Ahmar says.

His drawings of Asmahan are equally bewitching. “I drew Asmahan based on my perception of her,” he says. “I did not replicate an original photo. That's how my career truly started.”

He began sketching other hugely influential divas from the Arab world in a similar pop-art style, including Umm Kulthum, Warda, Fayrouz and Sabah, as well as their male counterparts, including Omar Sharif and Farid Al-Atrash. But it is his portraits of women that have proven most popular.

“I thought a lot about drawing female artists. They are icons that have had a defining influence on our daily lives and on the construction of our cultural identity,” he says.

The artist believes that his international success, especially within the Arab diaspora in the United States and Australia, is based on two main factors: “The fact that people appreciate that I show Arab culture in an attractive and pretty way, and my immense pride in this culture, which is naturally felt in my work.”

Al-Ahmar's work has been recognized both locally and internationally. In 2018, the French Institute commissioned him to create the poster for Amman’s Franco-Arab Film Festival. In 2019, he participated in the prestigious Arab Conference at Harvard.

His work is currently on show in two galleries in Amman — the Jacaranda Gallery and the Ali & Rama Gallery. In 2019, he staged an exhibition at the Jacaranda Gallery named “Lessa Faker” (Do You Remember), after a song by Umm Kulthum.

Apart from its obvious nostalgic appeal, Al-Ahmar's work remains timely and relevant — a sweet reminder of the far-reaching influence of women in Arab culture.

Main category: 
Tags: 
https://ift.tt/3jVYsHN July 08, 2021 at 08:06AM

يتم التشغيل بواسطة Blogger.