Artworks by Hassan Sharif

Rightly considered to be the first artist to awaken the UAE to contemporary art, internationally acclaimed as one of the most representative contemporary artists from the Arab world, Hassan Sharif has appeared in dozens of group and several solo exhibitions. Since the mid-80s, this artist of great versatility has concentrated his artistic energy and intuition on creating objects whose twisted perspectives reflect on the consumer society in which we all live.

Hassan Sharif collects common objects, hundreds and thousands of these serially manufactured objects, evoking the production process, almost repeating it, but without the senselessness that characterized the original production. This is because the artist has an aim: to show society its own auto-phagy, a kind of mythological personification whereby the social subject produces and generates – at a vast rate – materials of all kinds in order to consume them. It does so on an ever-increasing and unconditional scale, without questioning the meaning of such actions. This is, the artist’s way of alerting society to the meaning, or rather lack of meaning, of such actions. One can achieve this by slapping the observer in the face or, like Hassan Sharif, with energy but without creating a major drama.

He remains true to his poetic perspective, still respectful of the value of each and every object, to which the artist restores their dignity through the very act of conferring on them artistic value.

“I collect things from daily life and cancel the functions for which they were made by beating, cutting, and making holes in them or by adding other materials to them...etc. I exhibit them as works of art. I call this process “Making Objects”. In the same way, by applying the same concept, I make my paintings”. These are Hassan Sharif’s words, the words that summarize his approach to art: he defines it in few words, without emphasis, yet with strength and irrevocability.

At the same time, each intervention and action applied to the materials becomes indispensable and cannot be overlooked or blurred. It is a question of systematic procedure, rational and conceptual, nevertheless one that is able to translate itself into emotional participation that reverberates on to the object, which is then transfigured to become a transfer leading the viewer to authentic and intimate comprehension.


Cristiana de Marchi

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