A lecture by artist Ebtisam Abdulaziz yesterday at 5:30 PM at The Gallery at Emirates Palace.

Explore the artistic practice of this leading Emirati artist whose installation , entitled ‘My Brain’, is a part of ’25 years of Arab Creativity’, an extraordinary exhibition of contemporary Arab Art, created to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Paris-based Institut du Monde Arabe

Ebtisam ABDULAZIZ
Born in 1975 in the United Arab Emirates, Ebtisam Abdulaziz
lives and works in Sharjah. As a mathematics graduate and
multidisciplinary artist, she has dedicated herself to video,
photography and installations. She uses her scientific training
in her works and she is also fascinated by the systematic
reproduction of forms. Since 2000, she has been working for the
magazine Al Tashkeel and also contributes to other art reviews
and publications. She is a member of several associations,
including the Emirates Fine Arts Society, Dubai Youth Theatre,
and Art Atelier. Since 2001, her work has been featured in many
solo and collective exhibitions in Dubai, New York and Germany.
She has also appeared in the 7th Sharjah Biennial in 2005. Her
work is also held in various collections: Deutsche Bank AG, Abu
Dhabi’s Ministry of Youth, Culture and Community Development,
and in private collections across Europe and the Middle East.

‘Our capacity for artistic creation is linked to our capacity for
linguistic creation. Both are complementary and reinforce one
another. My work is based on this idea, and is a study of the mind
and the human brain. While it is a biological organ, it is also that
of thought and culture, as it contains our language, reflections,
and intimate conscience. Within this organ, the link is established
between biological reality and cultural reality. This link is too
complex to be simply analysed or be subjected to schematic
descriptions.
It has long been accepted that the study of the brain could not be
merely studied using scientific criteria, focusing on its extraordinary
anatomical complexity. I am looking for the human phenomena
that are based in the brain; the complexity of which cannot be
understood by science. I am fundamentally curious about the
functioning of our sensorial apparatus and about how the link is
made between what we see, hear and perceive through touch.
These relationships between the senses need to be examined with
the greatest care, as this will lead to the creation of new forms of
perception.
This forms the basis of my approach and I create works – both
visual and auditory – that enable viewers to understand nature’s
principles.

These investigations have led me to the following conclusion: the
brain is an organised and complex system that cannot be summed
up by facile formulae and over-simplified principles.’ E.A.

 

(text provided by ADF)