For several years now, Ebtisam Abdul Aziz has been making work investigating unconventional methods of compiling biographies, and exploring lateral methods of seeking out and collecting materials relating to individuals, their personalities and their stories.
Abdul-Aziz's approach functions within the realm of the Gestalt theory and the recognition that understanding something is greater than perceiving the sum of all of its parts. Past works have included light boxes with various sections of a CAT scan of her brain, as an attempt to understand the human psychology. The works exhibited during the Bastakiya Art Fair (BAF) 2009 are part of her ongoing Autobiography series - moving away from herself and focusing on others.
Her background in mathematics has the artist fascinated by systemic ways to produce emotionally or intellectually meaningful forms of expression.
Life in a Bag is an ongoing project where the artist conducts impromptu luggage scans of handbags and documents their belongings with one clean snapshot. The negatives of the images are then printed onto sheets of aluminum referencing a security apparatus. The hand bag scans are presented as portraits or indicators of the bag owner's personality: Are the images representative of all women's handbags? Can one reference culture, race, religion, politics, status and/or power based on what is inside their bag?
In Autobiography 2009, Abdul-Aziz compiles the paper targets from an random individual's daily shooting practice over the course of a month. She then engraves a series of dots in a seemingly abstract pattern on a sheet of backlit acrylic. The dots are in fact reflective of the patterns of holes left in the shooting marks collected by the artist. Each target's pattern is treated by the artist as a journal entry of sorts, and the dots - by extension, are treated as language meant to cast meaning on the subject's psychological state on the given day.
With these attempts at biography, Abdul-Aziz continually attempts to pinpoint the location of exactly what makes human beings what we are, and what makes us think, behave and express ourselves in the way that we do.
For an interview with the artist or high resolution images, please contact Taran Ali Khan on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or +9714 3411 367
The Bastakiya Art Fair
15 - 22 March, 2009
About Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz
Ebtisam Abdul-Aziz is an artist and writer from and based in the UAE.
With a Bachelors Degree in Science and Mathematics, Abdul-Aziz was part of the Member of Al Taskeel Editors Magazine-Fine Art Society. She was also an active member of the Emirates Photography Competition Jury, Abu Dhabi and the Emirates Foundation Grant Program Art Panel, both in 2007.
Abdul-Aziz has widely exhibited across the UAE at the Emirates Art Society Annual Exhibitions at the Sharjah Art Museum (2008-2001), a solo Exhibition at the Sharjah Arab Contemporary Art Museum (2007) and at the Creek Art Fair in the Bastakiya Area, Dubai (2008) to name a few and internationally in Australia, Germany, Singapore, Qatar and the US.
About The Third Line
The Third Line is an art gallery that represents contemporary Middle Eastern artists locally, regionally and internationally, with gallery spaces in Dubai and Doha. The gallery organises non-profit, alternative programs including Kutub, a bi-lingual Arab literature appreciation circle and a Documentary & Arab Feature Film Series; and, along with 4 other creative groups The Third Line co-organizes Pecha Kucha Dubai, an international multimedia forum for creatives and designers.
The Third Line's publishing division, Works on Paper, aims to publish three to four books of associated artists from the region annually. They include Presence by Emirati photographer Lamya Gargash (2008), In Absentia by Palestinian-Kuwaiti photographer Tarek Al-Ghoussein (2009) and forthcoming monographs of Egyptian artist Huda Lutfi and Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri.
In March 2009, The Third Line launches The Doha Series, which will see four selected artists travel to Doha, Qatar and create a unique body of work in response to their experience of the city.
The artists represented by The third Line 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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