PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Rajesh Punj, art critic.
Amani Al Shaali: Digital Drama Negotiating ruin and reward Born and based in Ajman, Amani Al Shaali came to
and reward of their lives. And instead of seeing
photography at thirteen, when the camera captured
photography as an opportunity to capture reality
her curiosity. Grounded by an absorbing culture and
and to represent it as real, Al Shaali appears to want
brilliant climate, Al Shaali has acquired an eye for
to use the photograph as the basis for a new set
seeing everything anew by creating a fanciful world
of fables, in a county and continent enriched by a
in which the figure appears to have been affected
history of cultural preservation, while allowing the
by a landscape that serves as the image’s aesthetic
image to become a more substantial situation as
skin. Critically, it is rewarding to watch the young
a story. Such bravery sets Al Shaali apart as both
photographer’s works unfold, as though a series
photographer and storyteller.
of animated stills. She creates a narrative for a new kind of photography, in which the individual is as
Examples of heightened drama in her works lie
much antagonised as s/he is animated by natural
in images such as In the Mourning (2016). An
elements. Al Shaali’s playfulness comes from her
incredibly affecting work in which the central figure
imaginative use of digital collage to conjure up
appears to be retreating from the world by resting
scenes of heightened drama.
on a makeshift bed of horizontal tree trunks that
Concentrating on Al Shaali’s series Snuffed Hope;
as an impenetrable wall. In We Waited Too Long
Rekindled and Tribulations of a Depressive, one
(2016), possibly the most striking of all of the works,
comes to understand how she uses imagery to
a figure is bent double on a bench with a slither of
navigate her way through the purpose and process
leaves pressed into her as though a dagger driven
of picture making. She creates a situation that
into her back, whilst her hair becomes entangled
could easily double as the stage set for a piece
into the earth, as though the protracting roots of
of modern theatre or a seminal scene from a film.
a tree, a scene explained by Al Shaali as ‘waiting
One begins to see in Al Shaali’s fanciful images
in the place we desperately wanted to get away
a plot that requires the ability to look outside of
from.’ These are images that highlight the loneliness
Creating a fanciful world in which the figure appears to have been affected by a landscape that serves as the images aesthetic skin.
the frame, beyond the captured moment and into
of the individual, as s/he surrenders and eventually
all fall within the theme of her digital drama. We see
an unfolding fiction of her making. Such qualities
succumbs to the landscape.
more of this in Blue Skies are Calling (2016), where
enhance the dominant background, which rises up
successfully demonstrate the artist’s ability to
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a lone figure is thrust back and forth in a contoured
use imagery and digital collage to create visually
By fashioning an image that reads as a melancholic
pose, as though ready to leap into the open skies
impressive chronicles of the lives of her individuals.
song, Al Shaali emphatically creates a scene of
that are just beyond her reach; and Letters to the
figures at their most vulnerable, perhaps a critique
Dead (2016), in which the central character sits at
Al Shaali’s strengths lie in her will to communicate
of a growing emotional condition in our generation.
the edge of the harbour wall facing the open ocean.
a cannon of ideas that deal in the sensibilities
This idea is further enhanced by Al Shaali’s use of
Al Shaali’s photographs read as choreographed
of young women who are negotiating the ruin
turbulent clouds, deserts and open oceans, which
scenes that penetrate us deeply.
