REVIEW
selections art paper #06
NEW YORK
Pier review A personal walk through The Armory Show by Yasmina Nysten
Another year, another four seasons, and a totally New New York City! How desirable it is for all of the many artists populating these streets we all call our own to be yet again part of one of the world’s biggest art events! The Armory Show was so enthusiastically anticipated this year, and so professionally organised that it harmoniously brought together 56 galleries on Pier 92 and over 140 dealers on Pier 94 – a truly ambitious feat of strength considering the essential nature of this show, which aims to bring together creations executed widely through space and time. When it all began in 1913, The Armory Show exhibited European art never before seen on American soil to counteract the American tendencies of the time. Today, in the same spirit of union, we witnessed a rather unique marriage of Western art with Middle Eastern, North African, and Mediterranean (MENAM) art in a section curated by the young and intellectual Omar Kholeifi. While walking through the left wing of Pier 92, where the East had dropped anchor, one could immediately sense the strength of Arabic identity. Through a landscape depicting hints of modernised Arabic calligraphy and beautifully reinterpreted arabesques in almost every booth, my experience at The Armory Show brought to my attention the fact that the Western world no longer holds the upper hand in novelty. Indeed, the artists from the MENAM region have leapt forth in the past decade in their use of materials such as resins, rendering highly polished surfaces and mediums such as digital imagery. It is all rooted, however, in a deeply cultural context. Worthy of notice was Iranian/American, UK-based artist Darvish Fakhr’s Flying Carpet piece, which consisted of the artist riding around the fair on a carpet hovering fifteen centimetres off the ground. One can only appreciate an artist with a sense of humour! Another corner that caught my eye featured the paintings of Huguette Caland at the Lombard Freid Gallery booth. Born in Beirut, Lebanon to the first president after independence, Bechara El Khoury, Caland has made a significant contribution to Arabic culture through her paintings, but was also a founder
26
of Lebanese non-governmental organisation In’aash focusing on the rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. I can’t help but draw a connection between the idea of losing one’s homeland and her paintings that look like intricate bird’s eye maps of abandoned rural and urban landscapes. Done with such poetic sensibility, I was overwhelmed with emotion as I spent a good amount of time travelling through the veins of these organic maps. As my desire to grasp the root of this creative force grew, Huguette’s daughter Brigitte spontaneously introduced herself to me. A vibrant lady, who has dedicated her life to promoting her mother’s work, she stood in fascination before the unhindered spirit of her mother, saying, “She is one of the happiest people I’ve ever met. She would always smile and never complain in the most challenging moments of her life. I feel like the luckiest person.” Brigitte continues by bringing to my attention Caland’s exploration of Cervantes’ horse Rocinante from Don Quixote with whom the artist strongly related at a more physically challenging period in her life; a horse, past his prime, that exhibited loyalty and a good heart. Later that day, as I searched for more meaning behind this creative parallelism, I came across Cervantes’ description of the steed’s careful naming: “Four days were spent in thinking what name to give him, because (as he said to himself ) it was not right that a horse belonging to a knight so famous, and one with such merits of his own, should be without some distinctive name, and he strove to adapt it so as to indicate what he had been before belonging to a knight-errant, and what he then was.” Yet again I was transported through space and time not only by exploring the variety of artworks at a show but by a horse’s cantor, through a painter’s landscape. As this experience set into my memory and the electric bursts of people around art simmered down, the New York quotidian blatantly rearranged time and space into a linear experience. I welcome with open arms, however, the next chance I’ll get to experience the timeless myths brought forth by these creators and enablers.
•
Ayman Yossri Daydban, Maharem III, 2015 45 Tissue Boxes, 138 × 128 cm, Athr Gallery