In the past five years, contemporary photographer Lamya Gargash was selected as the featured artist at the UAE’s first ever pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale, published a book, participated in exhibitions all over the world, and became a mother to two children. Style.com/Arabia visited Gargash’s latest show, “Traces,” at The Third Line gallery to talk to her about change, fate, and her hometown, Dubai.
It’s no secret that Dubai is a rapidly developing Emirate, but for Gargash, who is habitual in character, the concept of change is a difficult one. “In my work, I focus a lot on my hometown and document the Dubai that I know and knew. In many ways, I am trying to conserve its true essence.” Traces encompasses the photographer’s conversation with mortality and is a methodical, almost stubborn effort to preserve moments and feelings before they inevitably yellow and fade.
Curiously, none of the nostalgic works feature human beings, yet all of them are somehow grounded in Emirati culture. Each image contains clues that people were once present and busy with the day-to-day business of living.
After Lunch depicts an abandoned dining room table, a crime scene of spilled food, and crumpled napkins. Drapes, a far more personal photograph, records the last moments of a home (in this case the one belonging to Gargash’s grandfather) before the walls were demolished to make way for new construction. Tangled, easily the most striking of the photographs, is slightly out of focus—this blurring of detail is ultimately distracting and feels like more of a technical snafu than a composition decision. Meanwhile, the photographs all feature a hazy light, as if to remind us that everything is fleeting.
Reflecting on the domestic details, Gargash states, “The banal intrigues me. I find much beauty in what many overlook. We live in a fast-paced world where life passes us by and we don’t have time to notice a lot of what happens around us.”
Traces runs in the Project Space at The Third Line gallery until May 29th.
www.thethirdline.com
—Danna Lorch
