Unofficial Histories: Art of Living 2024 | Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi

Iris Projects presents Unofficial Histories - a group exhibition of regional artists responding to conditions and narratives in their immediate environment, archiving both personal and collective accounts.

Arnaud Rivieren’s (b.1966, Belgium) monumental Mangrove sculpture anchors the outdoor space. The most recent iteration of his Trees body of work, the artwork is crafted out of stainless steel - industrial waste laid to rest in scrapyards in the UAE. Conceptually related to his earlier sculptural experimentations on view inside, Rivieren’s presentation is a commentary on the uncontrolled industrialisation of the region and its environmental impact.

Baring the same name, courtesy of Gallery Isabelle, is a selection of Mohammed Kazem’s (b.1969, UAE) Mangroves, part of his Scratches on Paper series of works. Strikingly monochromatic and ranging in size from small sheets of paper to paintings several meters long, the artworks evoke the fragility of nature through the visual representations of sound, light, time, or movement created through brushstrokes and by vigorously scratching and gouging paper with scissors.

In a new installation conceived for this exhibition, Solimar Miller (b.1969, Puerto Rico) further reinterprets the ephemeral qualities of the environment. Originating from her observational drawings, her hand-silkscreened artworks and paintings intricately archive images of indigenous flora and endangered species in the UAE.

Elsewhere, Juma Al Haj (b.1990, UAE) puts in conversation two of his most recent paintings – a continuation of his abstracted calligraphy works, reimagined in jewel tones against a dramatic backdrop. His paintings transcend the confines of calligraphy as he chronicles personal experiences through seemingly unconscious abstract notations. His process is, though, method-based, calculated, and always originating from his personal journals.

Lastly, exhibiting for the first time in the UAE, Rashed AlAraifi (b.1992, Bahrain) presents a vibrant body of minimalist abstract works that visually narrate the wider Arab region in the pursuit of simplifying deeply complex native narratives, customs, and settings. As such, AlAraifi attempts to subconsciously build a pictographic language through gestural marks, strokes, and colour.