CANVAS GUIDE

SPOTLIGHT ON:

Sheikha Alyazia Bint Nahyan Al-Nahyan

Emirati documentary filmmaker and painter Sheikha Alyazia Bint Nahyan Al-Nahyan creates art inspired by the history and heritage of her homeland. Canvas speaks with the artist about her recent body of work and thoughts on being a woman artist in the UAE.

Colourful narratives about Middle Eastern culture are central to Sheikha Alyazia's oeuvre comprising broken canvases and mixed media installations. Through unique re-appropriations of media and materials found in her everyday environment, the artist offers commentary on the socio-political events facing Emirati society and contemporary global culture.

Her recent solo exhibition, Dialogue, which ran at Dubai's Artspace in December 2011, sheds light on Sheikha Alyazia's cultural and societal aspirations for the UAE. The show examined various means of communication and how human beings are consistently finding ways to interact and exchange ideas, especially in today's age of social media. However, as the artist explains, the pieces on display also "demonstrate how most problems of miscommunication still arise despite this increase of mass and social media." In Breaking Out, a 2011 oil on canvas work depicting a broken remote control positioned between seemingly shattered ceramic dishes, Sheikha Alyazia suggests a visual metaphor to convey how the media is not meant to be controlling. "Individuals try and break free when the media tries to control them," she adds. Another section of works on view investigated how and why individuals place judgment. For Sheikha Alyazia, in order to judge, "we must have the whole picture." This theme is particularly apparent in Whole Story, a 2011 work composed of a red canvas splattered with streaks of yellow paint. The centre of the piece is pierced by a long horizontal cut in an attempt to show how all parts must be taken into consideration in order to understand the whole.

 Another work on show, Appreciation, tackles issues pertaining to the importance of generating positivity. Created with seven canvases portraying two large thumbs - one pointing up and the other down - with what appears to be an airport ticker revealing the moving phrase thumbs up embedded into the far right hand of the piece, the artist points to the need for encouragement versus negative criticism in today's contemporary society. "I always start by exploring an idea when practising my art," she states. "Often, I don't know how the end result will look; I start painting and just let my feelings take over."

An Emirati artist, Sheikha Alyazia hopes that her artwork will not only serve as a platform to voice societal issues but also encourage fellow Emirati women to pursue a creative profession in the arts. "Creativity must have a story," she emphasises. "I want to encourage women of the UAE to take part in this story."

In 2007, she launched Anasy Media Production Company in Abu Dhabi, a media company that specialises in the production of documentary films. In that same year, she also established the Anasy Documentary Award under the patronage of her father, Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al-Nahyan, comprising a week-long film festival as well as a total of $408,000 in cash prizes for local and international films. She has since produced films such as Home of History, Future's Nation, the latter being the first UAE documentary centring on the country's ancient monuments and Common Grounds, which highlights the intricate relationship between The Netherlands and Islam since the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad Danish cartoon controversy of 2005.

Sheikha Alyazia has received critical acclaim in recent years (she received the Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Award in 2004) and has exhibited her work across the UAE, including at the 2010 39 Artists show in celebration of the country's 39th National Day and the 2009 Emirati Expressions exhibition. As an artist who believes that the process of creating is a personal journey, Sheikha Alyazia's career in the arts has already begun to forge a path for aspiring artists in the UAE.

By Rebecca Anne Proctor

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