Idris Khan, who produces beautiful and densely rich layered works inspired by history and literature is another artist showing a solo show at the art fair. Victoria Miro a prominent gallery from London, will show a solo booth of his work at Art Dubai. Khan has a large photographic show opening at the gallery in April and later in the year he is also installing a commission for the American Embassy in Islamabad, has a group show in India curated by Jane Neel, and an enormous solo show at Sean Kelly in New York. We caught up with him ahead of his busy few months.
Anna Seaman: Will the solo booth in Art Dubai contain some of the pieces from your new show opening in May at Victoria Miro?
Idris Khan: I will not be exhibiting the new photographs, which will be on show at the end of April at Victoria Miro Gallery . At Art Dubai I will be showing four new stamp painting works – two large panels and two works on paper. The large panels consist of a gesso ground made with black pigment, rabbit skin glue and slate dust. One of the panels will be blue and black ink with Arabic writing influenced by Ibn Sina, and on the other panel it'll be English text that is influenced by Agnes Martin and Frederik Nietsche. Mirroring these will be the works on paper that have been screen printed to allow the surface to absorb the oil based ink. I will also be exhibiting part of a sculpture I made in 2010 called Seven Times that was recently shown in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. This work is based on the Kabba in Mecca and was made at a very difficult emotional time after I lost my mother.
AS: Your work always involves layers and repetition of imagery or text. In a way, this could be seen as an allegory for the modern world with the saturation of image and information. Is this part of your concept?
IK: Personally I don't see the works as an allegory for the modern world, I see them as an escape from the modern world; a meditative exploration of the mind. One could argue that due to the free availability of information that there is no escape from over saturation. The studio and art can be a very safe place.
AS: What do you hope a viewer can extract from your work?
IK: When the viewer looks at a piece of my work I want them to question time, I want them to be deceived as to whether they are looking at a photograph or a painting, I want them to be captured within its repetition, I would like them to feel calm, and above all I want them to feel its workmanship. In the stamp paintings, the viewer is forced into an abstraction because they only see the start of the sentence and the end, therefore they never fully read the entire passage of writing - they are left to find their own journey through the painting.
AS: How important do you think Art Dubai is on the international calendar? What do you think makes it different from other fairs or indeed other regional art centres?
IK: I have been exhibiting at Art Dubai right from the very start. I was also commissioned by the fair to create images for the Global Art Forum book. From its creation I have seen it grow into becoming a well organised, important art fair for the Middle East and its artists. I have spoken to many dealers, artists and visitors and they've always expressed how well managed the entire fair is and the quality of work exhibited. On a personal level it has been excellent to reach a different collector base and viewers for the works. I am sad I can't be there this year but glad that I am represented well by Victoria Miro Gallery. It feels different from other fairs because it feels incredibly optimistic and there is a real high energy towards the buzz of collecting and talking about art - especially thanks to the Global Art Forum.
* Art Dubai takes place from Wednesday to Saturday (March 18-21) at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. For more info visit www.artdubai.ae
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
Fixtures (6pm UAE unless stated)
Saturday Bournemouth v Leicester City, Chelsea v Manchester City (8.30pm), Huddersfield v Tottenham Hotspur (3.30pm), Manchester United v Crystal Palace, Stoke City v Southampton, West Bromwich Albion v Watford, West Ham United v Swansea City
Sunday Arsenal v Brighton (3pm), Everton v Burnley (5.15pm), Newcastle United v Liverpool (6.30pm)
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 247hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm from 1,500-3,500rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 7.8L/100km
Price: from Dh94,900
On sale: now
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Sour Grapes
Author: Zakaria Tamer
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Pages: 176
MATCH INFO
Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')
Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')
Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
Why all the lefties?
Six of the eight fast bowlers used in the ILT20 match between Desert Vipers and MI Emirates were left-handed. So 75 per cent of those involved.
And that despite the fact 10-12 per cent of the world’s population is said to be left-handed.
It is an extension of a trend which has seen left-arm pacers become highly valued – and over-represented, relative to other formats – in T20 cricket.
It is all to do with the fact most batters are naturally attuned to the angles created by right-arm bowlers, given that is generally what they grow up facing more of.
In their book, Hitting Against the Spin, cricket data analysts Nathan Leamon and Ben Jones suggest the advantage for a left-arm pace bowler in T20 is amplified because of the obligation on the batter to attack.
“The more attacking the batsman, the more reliant they are on anticipation,” they write.
“This effectively increases the time pressure on the batsman, so increases the reliance on anticipation, and therefore increases the left-arm bowler’s advantage.”
