5. Hashel Al Lamki’s Survey Exhibition Maqam Reflects on a Decade of Practice in Abu Dhabi

By Susanne Niemann
^{Introduction by Sophie Mayuko Arni} ^{Published on January 29, 2024}

Every year, Abu Dhabi Art hosts a Gateway exhibition. Situated in the middle of the fair, the exhibition usually takes the form of a group exhibition, with a guest curator highlighting both local and international artists. Providing space for new cross-cultural dialogues and outlasting the fair by three months, this series of curated exhibitions has been giving an institutional flair to the commercial setting, presenting UAE-based artists alongside artists of a focus region of the same generation.

For the 15th anniversary of the fair, Abu Dhabi Art invited Venetia Porter, art historian and previously Senior Curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle East art at the British Museum (1989-2022), to curate a solo exhibition of Hashel Al Lamki. Hashel was chosen to represent Abu Dhabi, his home Emirate, providing both local and global perspectives.

While he was the only artist showing, the exhibition still achieved the completeness of a curated group exhibition. That, I believe, is a pure reflection of the diversity of thought and life experiences that he has actively been seeking throughout his life and career, some of which we covered in our interview with the artist for Global Art Daily’s inaugural E-Issue 01. Since his first solo exhibition at Warehouse421, the multidisciplinary artist has exhibited in biennials and exhibitions throughout the world. From Lyon to Atami to AlUla, Hashel’s global mindset takes him to cities and places far beyond Abu Dhabi, while his practice always ties back to finding universal truth from his home of Al Ain, the mountain range of Jebel Hafeet, and the coastlines of the United Arab Emirates.

While his strongest suit remains painting, the past two years have shown the range of his practice: from painting to immersive sound and video works, to sculpture, and site-specific installations, fluidity and flexibility are a constant. Maqam, the name of the neighborhood where Hashel grew up in Al Ain, felt very much like a homecoming at Abu Dhabi’s annual gathering of the international art crowd.

We had the chance to catch up with Hashel two weeks before the exhibition opening.

This conversation was held on November 7, 2023.

Susanne Niemann: Hashel, your Maqam exhibition, part of Gateway at Abu Dhabi Art, will open in about two weeks. It feels like a big moment in your career, a homecoming to Abu Dhabi, and also a major review of your creative practice up to this day. How are you feeling about it?

Hashel Al Lamki: To be honest, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. We've been in talks about this for a little bit over a year now. If you had asked me 16 years ago whether I would ever be recognized or appreciated this way, I wouldn't have guessed it honestly. I was just chasing my dreams and doing whatever I needed to do as a person and as an artist. And now, this kind of love that I'm receiving back–it's coming together, and I'm so grateful for all the opportunities that I have had in the past but also in particular for this upcoming survey show.

1. Opening of Hashel Al Lamki: Maqam. Gateway Exhibition at Abu Dhabi Art 2023. Image courtesy of the author.

If you had asked me 16 years ago whether I would ever be recognized or appreciated this way, I wouldn't have guessed it honestly.

S.N.: You say it in such beautiful words. Maqam, is that the name of the neighborhood where you grew up?

H.L.: Yes, and I’m here at the moment. I decided to be stationed here for the two weeks before the show opens to be fully immersed in the neighborhood. I haven't been back for quite some time, and I'm dedicating the show to Al Ain and Maqam in particular, so I have to spend some time here. I will go to the opening from here.

2. Hashel Al Lamki, Endless Love, 2023. Oil painting, natural pigment, oil pastels, ink, on cotton bedsheet 243.5 x 163.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Tabari Art Space.

I'm dedicating the show to Al Ain and Maqam in particular, so I have to spend some time here. I will go to the opening from here.

S.N.: I like this idea that you're coming back to one of the environments that inspired you. Is that also where you started to paint?

H.L.: Yes, it was in this same house! I mean, it has been remodeled since then. I believe it was in grade four when I claimed an extra space in the house and turned it into a studio without really knowing what I was doing. I was just excited to create and make a space and claim that as a studio. And then I realized, I was just doing the same things that I'm doing right now. It became my destiny.

S.N.: Is that space still around? Are you still working there now?

H.L.: No, we are talking about the early nineties. The house has been reshaped but I know where that space is. I can see it from here but it is part of another space now. I left in 2007, so you know, it's been a while since I actually produced work in this house.

3. Hashel Al Lamki‘s three-dimensional studies ahead of his Maqam exhibition in his Abu Dhabi studio, 2023. Images courtesy of Abu Dhabi Art. Photo by Jimmy deParis.

I believe it was in grade four when I claimed an extra space in the house and turned it into a studio without really knowing what I was doing.

S.N.: It must be nice for you to have the opportunity to be around that space where your practice started. I'm curious about your process of working with Venetia Porter, the curator of Maqam. What did the process look like given that this is a major review of your artistic practice? What do you want the show to be like? What experience do you wish for the visitors of Maqam?

H.L.: I met Venetia when I was showing at the Lyon Biennale last year, the sixteenth edition. She was part of a curatorial tour, and I was just explaining my work. I went to Japan and soon after my show opened, I received a notification that Venetia would like to have a Zoom call with me. I was excited when she told me that she had been appointed as the curator and was deciding on the selection of artists. She told me about her vision and I was super honored and humbled.

This is like coming back in a full circle to Abu Dhabi. Someone recognized me outside of the UAE. This might be a two-sided conversation, but I think it’s important to not just be a voice locally. I’m based locally while participating in international shows. I'm excited about these connections with other shows that I've been in, like the Atami Art Grant in Japan, working with Sophie Arni, and another group exhibition in Brussels.

People are starting to take this region seriously. It’s important to position ourselves as artists from the diaspora and from the region. We are serious and we are not different from artists based in Berlin or New York, or any other place.

Back to your questions, it's been really sweet working with Venetia. Compared to other solo exhibitions I’ve had, this show feels very personal. It's about the narratives and stories that I have been going through. The show is defining and helping me as a person. We are looking back finding the common threads. During one of Venetia’s first studio visits earlier this year,I was swiftly going through my works, one of by one, and she kept on pausing. She was like, hold on, look at this, it's all connected. I’m still talking about the same themes, regardless of the medium, whether it’s video, photography, painting, or performance. I’m putting boundaries, but it’s all there.

People are starting to take this region seriously. It’s important to position ourselves as artists from the diaspora and from the region. We are serious and we are not different from artists based in Berlin or New York, or any other place.

4. Hashel Al Lamki in his Abu Dhabi studio ahead of Maqam exhibition, 2023. Images courtesy of Abu Dhabi Art. Photo by Jimmy deParis.

S.N.: It’s beautiful that she could see this connection. I think that is the value of going through your work with someone who has a more distant perspective. I'm curious, out of the works you will be showing, is there one or more that hold particular meaning to you or that you connect to a special moment?

H.L.: All of them do. I love them all so it's hard to choose. It was also hard for us as a team, Venetia and myself, to narrow it down to a specific selection of works, because I'm an excessive producer. I like to produce a lot. For the first time, viewers will be able to see some of my notebooks and some of the artist books that I created in 2007. Some paintings have never been shown before either. You know, when you're in the studio, you just make things that are not necessarily shown. I like that approach. There are a lot of personal stories that are about to come out in the works that we selected.

S.N.: When you say that you're excited about the show, is it because it is so deeply personal? This exhibition seems not to be about representing something else, but shining light on you as a person. I'm excited to see the artist books. What does your creative process generally look like? How do you go about starting a new project?

H.L.: Back to Al Ain, when I had the space in the house, I was mainly painting, because that's what I was attracted to, and also what was common back then. I'm from a small town, so we didn't have so much access to art and exhibitions. It was a humble beginning and this feeling stayed with me for quite some time. Then, when I moved to New York, I was a little bit avant-garde. I tried different things and experimented with photography, 35mm development in the dark room, video, textiles… there was so much. That was the purpose of that period.

Something that always spoke to me is the connection with nature. I was introduced to natural pigments then, thanks to my two professors Laura Sansone and Jean Gardner. They helped me a lot in shaping my understanding of natural pigments. I was spending time at the farmers market in Union Square and picked up whatever I could use to create dyes. Then I went to Guatemala where I did a residency with a group of artisanal craftswomen who were doing textile weaving using natural pigments. After I came back, I was trying to process all this information. So for the longest time, I had this interest in natural pigments, and the consideration of natural resources while I was producing work.

You know, the medium could just be oil on canvas or acrylic on canvas, but I wanted to challenge that and introduce a sustainable aspect while talking about nature in my work. The additional layer of natural pigment is very important. I work with textiles, I mean, I call them paintings, but there is a very blurred line in between. I will leave that to the art historians and art critics to decide how to classify my work.

5. Hashel Al Lamki, Sabah Al Khair, 2018-202. Oil on canvas, from a series of 14 works, 80x80cm each. Courtesy of the artist and Tabari Art Space.

S.N.: I used to live ten minutes from Union Square so when you mentioned it, I could picture how colorful and full of inspiration it was. You mentioned living in a few places. That makes me wonder how you maintained your art practice during those times. Was it something that you actively made space for in your life? Or did it just kind of happen?

H.L.: Something I realized while working on this show, is that I was never seeking big cities. I went to Guatemala, Haiti, and New Mexico. I went to all these other regions to see what alternative artist communities are doing. I think people from small towns also have important messages to share. If I would just gravitate towards big cities, and would only be immersed in the institutional aspect of the practice, it would maybe be a commodity of showing the same thing over and over again. I’m not saying that it's not important to be in those places and showing there. But I had to follow my guts. I was between Al Ain, United Arab Emirates and Mombasa, Republic of Kenya because of my maternal connection. I was interested in seeing other communities and ways of living in the world, and in understanding how my experience could be similar or different from other communities. That was so to say my research period. I think it’s important to be immersed in these other landscapes. I talk about Jebel Hafeet, but a mountain is a mountain. It is a universal phenomenon, and people can relate to it in different ways.

I talk about Jebel Hafeet, but a mountain is a mountain. It is a universal phenomenon, and people can relate to it in different ways.

6. Hashel Al Lamki, Jebel Hafeet (2019), from the series Versailles, 2018-2019, first exhibited at Warehouse421, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. 204 x 204 cm. Courtesy of the artist.

S.N.: I agree. I find it interesting how for example one name of the desert here is Empty Quarter, suggesting an ‘empty’ space, but it is layered with meaning and stories. When you said a mountain is a mountain, it made me think of the similar stories you will find even in places that are continents apart. How were you drawn to these themes in the first place? Was our environment something you were interested in when you started in your first studio or was it something that became more relevant for you over the years?

H.L.: You know, Al Ain is a small town that is governed by the ministry not to have high-rise buildings, so everything I saw as a child was always the mountain because the whole city falls under the mountain. You could reference the mountain at different times of the day and night. There is also my connection to the African continent and seeing how communities are trying to sustain themselves through everyday life. Then I moved to Guatemala and Haiti. I went to Haiti right after the earthquake. I wanted to understand how artists could contribute in that aftermath. After that, I was in the Netherlands in a Surinamese area where the rate of crime was very high, so they were inviting artists to come and do things. It has always been a multi-layered interest and fascination. What is also interesting to me is my adaptability to the environment and my awareness of the environment. Therefore, the decision to use natural pigments and to be sustainable in my practice is important. I have an impact, meaning a carbon footprint, and I try not to create more damage but to live within standards that are environmentally friendly at least.

S.N.: I would like to say that you are creating so much value for the people around you. I read about Bait 15, a space you started with other UAE-based artists, and that was active from 2018 to 2021. One could say, you majorly contributed to the cultural development in Abu Dhabi. Since community engagement seems to take up such a central role in your practices in the studio and beyond, I have a bigger question for you. Going back to what you mentioned before about movement and networks, what are your thoughts on the UAE art and cultural landscape now?

H.L.: The art scene here is developing. There are pockets within pockets. It's funny because it's very small and we all know each other. It's exciting to see the number of artists that are active in the scene and participating and showing, and there are more and more institutions, more galleries, and more collectives. Bait 15 came in at a period when there wasn't much happening in terms of artist initiatives. There were more top-down initiatives. We were running for four years and a half, and we did what we could during that time. Bait 15 became a safe space for a lot of the community members. They could come and have discussions, or work on projects. Well, that's a whole episode on its own. Then, it was time for self-searching and finding our individual voices. Some of the members have moved away to different cities and different countries. In general, it's dynamic and I like that aspect of it. It's always changing. There are new voices, new ideas, new challenges, new opportunities. I spent seven years in New York, and when I left, there was not much happening here. Since I came back in 2014, I have progressed in my practice in Abu Dhabi, in a way I wouldn't be able to anywhere else. There is space for growth here. I think it's also good to be on the ground, and be the voice from here to everywhere else.

Since I came back in 2014, I have progressed in my practice in Abu Dhabi, in a way I wouldn't be able to anywhere else.

7. Hashel Al Lamki and Mel in his Abu Dhabi studio ahead of Maqam exhibition, 2023. Images courtesy of Abu Dhabi Art. Photo by Jimmy deParis.
8. Opening of Hashel Al Lamki: Maqam. Gateway Exhibition at Abu Dhabi Art 2023. Image courtesy of the author.

S.N.: I agree with you on the importance of these ground-up initiatives. In Abu Dhabi, we have the Louvre, and the Guggenheim, these globally recognized names, but it is so important to have community-oriented initiatives.

H.L.: In the long term, when these institutions and museums are all going to open, and there are no artists on the ground, then, who will be there besides the tourist buses? It's important that initiatives are being made for us. We need to be engaged with the scene and develop work.

S.N.: It sometimes feels like Dubai is a bit louder and there is more happening, so I'm always happy when things are happening here in Abu Dhabi. We're coming to the close of our conversation but I have two more questions for you before you go. Firstly, what do you wish for the future of the UAE art ecosystem and for artists here?

H.L.: I have a message to myself, and fellow artists: Stay committed to yourself and your practice. Keep producing and things will come your way. Don't worry too much about the industry itself. Once you show commitment, people will respect that and understand that you are passionate. They will come and knock on your door. If it happened to me, it can happen to anyone else. It's really about being committed and figuring out the work itself, rather than being here and being there. I think that is a good reminder. Stay humble, stay in gratitude, and everything will come your way.

I have a message to myself, and fellow artists: Stay committed to yourself and your practice. Keep producing and things will come your way.

S.N.: Important words! My last question is what's next for you? What are you excited about in the future?

H.L.: Honestly, this season is my busiest season. I haven't shown in Abu Dhabi in a while. It’s my homecoming in a way and I'm excited to be part of Abu Dhabi Art. I'm also doing the Richard Mille Art Prize at the Louvre. There are a few group exhibitions that I will be participating in with smaller works, like one or two paintings here and there. My plan for 2024 is to focus on residences. I am interested in Japan and the craftsmanship there. I would like to deepen my understanding of natural pigments, and also develop my skills in brush making. That is like a wishlist. I don't have a concrete plan yet but I was told that Kyoto is where most of the traditional craftsmanship happens in Japan and Tokyo also sounds interesting. I'm open to doing residencies. Talking about longer-term plans, I would love to explore my connection with Africa. I feel like I haven't touched that in a meaningful way yet. That's where I'm at. I mean, it took me sixteen years to get to Al Maqam so it will take me some time to get to Africa.

It took me sixteen years to get to Al Maqam so it will take me some time to get to Africa.

S.N.: So Maqam is more of a temporary homecoming, hearing about all the plans and ideas you already have for 2024. I can see how Japan is an intriguing place to learn more about natural pigments. Any final words you would like to share?

H.L.: What do I say? One thing I want to encourage the community is to document their practices and their experiences. It’s one thing to be in the contemporary moment right now, but then, for the longevity and sustainability of this practice, we need to also be able to look back and understand what has been going on. That is something that I want to call out to the community and see if people want to collaborate on short essays, or small publications – written words.

S.N.: I think future art historians will be very grateful for what you just said. It was lovely hearing more about your practice. Thank you so much for your time and all the best for Maqam.

Susanne Niemann is a Contributing Editor at Global Art Daily.

^{Hashel Al Lamki’s Gateway Exhibition: Maqam was on view from November 20, 2023 - January 21, 2024 at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi.}

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5. Hashel Al Lamki’s Survey Exhibition Maqam Reflects on a Decade of Practice in Abu Dhabi

If you had asked me 16 years ago whether I would ever be recognized or appreciated this way, I wouldn't have guessed it honestly.

I'm dedicating the show to Al Ain and Maqam in particular, so I have to spend some time here. I will go to the opening from here.

I believe it was in grade four when I claimed an extra space in the house and turned it into a studio without really knowing what I was doing.

People are starting to take this region seriously. It’s important to position ourselves as artists from the diaspora and from the region. We are serious and we are not different from artists based in Berlin or New York, or any other place.

I talk about Jebel Hafeet, but a mountain is a mountain. It is a universal phenomenon, and people can relate to it in different ways.

Since I came back in 2014, I have progressed in my practice in Abu Dhabi, in a way I wouldn't be able to anywhere else.

I have a message to myself, and fellow artists: Stay committed to yourself and your practice. Keep producing and things will come your way.

It took me sixteen years to get to Al Maqam so it will take me some time to get to Africa.

︎︎︎Previous Next︎

E-Issue 07 –– AUHWinter 2023-24

E-07++ Winter/Spring 2024

About ––

Interviews ––

Open Call ––

Newsletter ––

Chronological Archive ––

E-Issue 01 –– AUH/DXB Summer 2020

E-01++ Fall/Winter 2020-21

🎙️GAD Talk Series –– Season 1 2020

E-Issue 02 –– NYC Spring 2021

E-02++ Spring/Summer 2021

E-Issue 03 ––TYO Fall 2021

E-03++ Fall/Winter 2021-22

E-Issue 04 –– IST Spring 2022

E-04++ Spring/Summer 2022

E-Issue 05 –– VCE Fall 2022

E-05++ Fall/Winter 2022-23

E-Issue 06 –– DXB/SHJSpring 2023

🔍 Legal

5. Hashel Al Lamki’s Survey Exhibition Maqam Reflects on a Decade of Practice in Abu Dhabi

If you had asked me 16 years ago whether I would ever be recognized or appreciated this way, I wouldn't have guessed it honestly.

I'm dedicating the show to Al Ain and Maqam in particular, so I have to spend some time here. I will go to the opening from here.

I believe it was in grade four when I claimed an extra space in the house and turned it into a studio without really knowing what I was doing.

People are starting to take this region seriously. It’s important to position ourselves as artists from the diaspora and from the region. We are serious and we are not different from artists based in Berlin or New York, or any other place.

I talk about Jebel Hafeet, but a mountain is a mountain. It is a universal phenomenon, and people can relate to it in different ways.

Since I came back in 2014, I have progressed in my practice in Abu Dhabi, in a way I wouldn't be able to anywhere else.

I have a message to myself, and fellow artists: Stay committed to yourself and your practice. Keep producing and things will come your way.

It took me sixteen years to get to Al Maqam so it will take me some time to get to Africa.

︎︎︎Previous Next︎

E-Issue 07 –– AUH
Winter 2023-24

E-07++
Winter/Spring 2024

E-Issue 01 –– AUH/DXB
Summer 2020

E-01++
Fall/Winter 2020-21

E-Issue 02 –– NYC
Spring 2021

E-02++
Spring/Summer 2021

E-Issue 03 ––TYO
Fall 2021

E-03++
Fall/Winter 2021-22

E-Issue 04 –– IST
Spring 2022

E-04++
Spring/Summer 2022

E-Issue 05 –– VCE
Fall 2022

E-05++
Fall/Winter 2022-23

E-Issue 06 –– DXB/SHJ
Spring 2023