Quarantine Newsletter: Introduction
Time warped thoughts in Isolation
Detail of Hassan Sharif (Emirati, 1951-2016), ‘Jumping No. 1,’ (1983). Photographs mounted on cardboard. Courtesy of Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi.
To most of you, welcome to week 10 of facing life in quarantine. But who's counting these days anyway? In our seasonal forecast, 'Future' decided to postpone itself until further notice, making 'Present' vulnerable and lethargic to sustain the momentum of continuity and expectations usually predicated by the former. We're surviving unprecedented times and riding the rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows with our own coping mechanisms. Mine just happens to be crafting stories.
Despite the occasional suffering of fuzzy thoughts and the lack of a clear-cut schedule, I've managed to churn out the most content on Mid East Art's website and Instagram ever. I am finding the creative silver linings in the timelessness and disarray of my days, weeks and months that melt into one another like an ice cream cone on a hot summer's midday (or a Dubai spring's night).
Since the onset of these measures, The Quarantine Files on Mid East Art has been publishing themed posts reflecting these isolated sensations and transitory moments readily seen across Middle Eastern art history and a few favorite past exhibitions. It's been a refreshing way to feature interviews with artists and curators from the region, and it eventually sprouted into my current Artist in Quarantine series. Till date I've collected and am sharing over 120 stories from Middle Eastern artists living around the world--from Los Angeles to New York, Brussels to Dubai. Displayed in episodes on my crafty Instagram stories and blog, the series is currently a time-sensitive documentary project that charts growth just as much as creative stagnation and all that lies 'in-between'. In what may seem like small changes to these artist's practices might just have a monumental, waterfall effect into their future directions..
To those of us working in the art world, we're adapting to the virtual vernissages, as seen activated in Dubai's gallery district Alserkal Avenue to art fair Frieze New York, along with the multitude of Zoominar cultural discussions and online courses. I've finally embraced digital artwork far more than when it was displayed in the gallery, but not yet eager enough to invest in one of my own. A bunch of relief programs and charity auctions have been sprouting across art communities worldwide in the efforts to support the local artists and freelancers. Whether we like it or not, we face this current reality as a 'quaran-themed' zeitgeist (the word literally translating from German into 'spirit of the time') where pixels have become our best friends and main vehicle to communication, pajama pants and slippers are the preferred ensemble below the computer camera and we are suddenly in dire need of an interior designer to give a minor makeover to the rectangular backdrop just behind our computer screen.
As Kafka put it 'There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. One has to go abroad in order to find the home one has lost.' Today we find ourselves in a unique sensation of 'displacement' despite the fact we haven't physically left many footprints outside our homes. Testing the limits and boundaries we once thought existed, 'home' is constructed by the very activity of mentally and digitally running to and from the anxiousness and vulnerability of our days. Out of this, I haven't held digitally tighter to the close-knit creative community in the UAE more than now (also the chair I sit in hasn't held me for this long either..). The hinges may have fallen off in many areas of my life but I'm writing to you in a time-warped vortex in-between 20th century cinema, drama and art movements, all while facing the music. Let the melodies ricochet within our homes, and remember to embrace your inner performer. I'm currently in a singing battle with the 'coo-ing' doves squatting outside my apartment window..
I hope my highlight published content below may stir some creative flavor to our new lives that are cooking and simmering in silence yet exploding with inner sautéed thoughts. Stay tuned!
--Suzy Sikorski, founder of Mid East Art