The Doha Series is a unique initiative launched by The Third Line, in which four select artists travel to Doha Qatar to create a body of work in response to the experience of being in the city. This signature project will result in an internationally relevant, annual series of selected artists whose work covers the range of mediums and styles affiliated with contemporary Middle Eastern art, created especially for exhibition at The Third Line, Doha. The project's essential aim is presenting Doha as an available source of inspiration to artists, in turn fostering new commissions and recognition influenced by Doha, about Doha and for Doha.
Featured artists for the Doha Series include Golnaz Fathi, Laleh Khorramian, Huda Lutfi and Arwa Abouon. The Third Line will publish a book at the end of the year documenting the series. The first Doha Series will present works by Golnaz Fathi.
Iranian born Fathi visited Doha in the summer of 2008. Facing the heat and humidity common in the country during that time, she explored and enjoyed the city as both a tourist and researcher. The source of her inspiration was a combination of the colors, black, white and the sandy ochre she observed while on her visit and the carpet - the ornate tapestry common in her home country of Iran and throughout the Middle East. "I come from a country famous for its carpets; the whole region has this preference to use carpets in the home and I have seen that here too," says Fathi visualizing the cultural similarity.
The three carpets bring together the bold and familiar usage of white and black, recognizable in past works and the common colours Fathi saw the men and women wearing in Doha. Ochre, introduced in her present work as a complimentary hue represents the earthy tones found throughout the city. The carpets will be adorned with her stylistic calligraphy forms in the abstract yet familiar language where although the words are unreadable, what they say doesn't matter.
Doha Series: Works by Golnaz Fathi
15 March - 3 May, 2009
About Golnaz Fathi
A trained calligrapher, Fathi has turned the literary art-form on its head by skillfully transforming known language into form and composition.
She first discovered calligraphy while studying graphic design at Tehran's Azad University, which she later left to train for six years at the Calligraphy Association of Iran. Practicing the script for over seven hours a day eventually paid off - she was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat (a genre of calligraphy) - but she soon tired of the discipline's rules and regulations. Hence, she created a new form of expression in her paintings; an imaginary language deeply rooted in Persian tradition while simultaneously hinting at a social renaissance.
Fathi lives and works in Iran.
About The Third Line, Doha
The Third Line is an art gallery representing contemporary Middle Eastern artists in Dubai and Doha creating paths between the artists and the public in an effort to expand the exhibition of art in the region.
The gallery organises non-profit, alternative programs including regular film screenings and co-organizes Pecha Kucha Doha, an international multimedia forum for creatives and designers. Qatar has long been recognised in the Middle East for its dedication to quality art, culture and education of the arts. The Third Line Qatar hopes to use this basis as a way to support the artists that it currently represents.
Represented artists include: Abbas Akhavan, Ala Ebtekar, Amir H. Fallah, Arwa Abouon, Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz, Farhad Moshiri, Fouad Elkoury, Golnaz Fathi, Hassan Hajjaj, Hayv Kahraman, Huda Lutfi, Lamya Gargash, Laleh Khorramian, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Neda Hadizadeh, Pouran Jinchi, Rana Begum, Shezad Dawood, Shirin Aliabadi, Susan Hefuna, Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Youssef Nabil.
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