The forty-year-old artist, who is from the southern part of Saudi Arabia, recalls how before the days of the Internet he suffered while trying to find any books or information on art. There were no galleries or museums, and art books were rare. However, the Internet changed that. The first time he went online, he sat in front of his computer for nine hours, “just checking to see what the museums or other artists are doing, what kind of medium they are using. So it became my main source of knowledge,” he tells The Majalla.
Today, his works are intended as couriers of knowledge. They hold hidden messages, texts in Arabic and English, and motifs that are layered commentaries on the Saudi society and its past and present. For the most part, these codes of identity are for the outside world. “Usually, they hear about us through the media, which is not true. So I’m trying to give them a kind of national language, which is free of ideology,” he says. “They should know who we are through us, and art is a great channel for ideas.”
Gharem certainly provides plenty of ideas. In his Stamp series, calligraphic words on rubber surfaces are embossed onto the wooden bases of oversized stamps. The stamps, (similar to those used on official documents) lying around the exhibition as if on an office desk, send a chilling message about institutionalized ideologies and their effect on restricted or predetermined minds. The most striking piece in the entire show is one of these, called Moujaz (2013), which means ‘in accordance with Shari’a law.’ The stamp’s wooden base and ornate designs are hand-carved by Moroccan craftsmen, radiating a richness that makes it less threatening and more like an object of desire. One could imagine a giant hand using it to print beautiful texts on walls, like graffiti…
Read the full article on The Majalla.