POPULAR US-based artist Simeen Farhat’s exhibition, The Breath of Poetry, opens at La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art, Manama tonight.
Originally from Pakistan, Ms Farhat was encouraged by her sister to join the art world before moving to the US 25 years ago.
After pursuing a Bachelors in Fine Arts, she dabbled in print-making but felt need to explore other media rather than being confined to one form.
“I like to explore. One thing led to another and this body of work (the exhibition) came because poetic language had been part of my work,” she told the GDN.
“I liked signs, symbols and writing from when I was an anthropology student and how writing evolved as gestures to everything.
Evolution
“That led me to text and the text kept evolving, from illegible to political, poetic to personal and social and it kept on evolving. Because of the way I do my work, it has become very abstract.”
Her father’s love of poetry along with the work of a philosophy professor she admires inspired a lot of Ms Farhat’s work.
“My collection is sculptures and most of the pieces that I’m showing (in Bahrain) have Farsi and Urdu poetry as well as my own poetry or things that I write,” she said.
“Some are inspirations from poets such as T S Elliot, Kafka and Eastern and Western poets.”
Ms Farhat’s sculptures which are made from acrylic and resin have become very popular in the Middle East since her first show in the UAE in 2010.
“I think it’s the nature of the calligraphy aspect that people liked the work.
“I don’t specifically call it calligraphy, but it’s inspired by it.
“The work is more about language in 3D and text, the shape of language and how I see language.
“Although inspired by calligraphy, I wanted to add to it as I see my work more as language-based along with the philosophy and poetry and the shape and how to read and see language as 3D.”
This will be the second-time Ms Farhat is exhibiting at the gallery, the first being in 2011 after a gallery in London introduced her to La Fontaine owner Fatima Alireza.
Ms Farhat added that her work is about freedom and liberation of speech and therefore tonight she hopes people will take away from it the ‘mix and blend of cultures’.
“My favourite pieces are She Smeared Red and The Black Sleep. The poem for The Black Sleep is very interesting; it is something I wrote about Kafka’s Metamorphosis.”
Pieces from The Breath of Poetry will be available to purchase, with 20 per cent of the proceeds going to Thinkinc Foundation, a charity which aims to make life-changing Applied Behaviour Analysis more accessible to children in Bahrain, regardless of family income level.
The month-long exhibition opens at 6pm and will be followed by dinner and a performance at 8pm by a jazz trio, featuring saxophonist Franky, Ronald on keyboard and Jason on guitar.
For further information, call 17230123 or visit www.lafontaineartcentre.net.
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