ESTABRAK / إستبرق

About Omanis Under Water

Omanis Under Water is a prize winning, Limited Edition Photographic Series. It is part 01 of a proposed global photographic series World Under Water (WUW) looking at varying societies under water.

Series Awards/Recognition:

Official selection:

Royal Academy of the Arts Summer Exhibition, London 2016.

Brighton Photo Fringe, Brighton 2016.

Art Jameel Photography Award; Prize winner (2nd), Saudi Arabia 2015.

Alserkal Cultural Foundation official public collection, Dubai 2015.

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Official Shortlist:

Danny Wilson Memorial Award; Curator's Choice, Brighton 2016.

International Emerging Artist Award, Dubai 2016.

Foci Magazine, Online 2016.

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About:

Omanis.. Submerged in water. Headless, faceless only their bodies and dress tell us a story. Beauty. Oman offers natural beauty. And in the sea, it is just as beautiful and peaceful as out here on land. The oceans motion takes over as traditional dress starts to explore the body. Outlines start to reveal parts dress was always meant to hide.. But the waters a place we cannot exist for long periods of time.. Is the water representative of our environment? Men in white dresses.. Women forever in black.

In a society where religion is so caught up in peace, trust and understanding there lives a deep inherited fear for the unknown. Water holds a power to embrace or destroy us and this is one of the concepts currently driving my work.

“Socially, the ocean is an escape from the physical restraints on our bodies which act a certain way on land, to ‘behave’, to comply with conformities. The trauma of the Omani landscape resounds loudly in contemporary society, where the water is silent.' - Excerpt from a recent article written by Natalie McGuire examining some of my works.

Using water as a representation of the environment and current societal choices of local norms, I examine underlying discourses that constitute Oman's society, through a lens ignored by many. Both character and viewer are represented through an aesthetically beautiful series of work. Using broken reflections shown via local interactions that develop the fabric of the Omani society, the use of Omani's placed in water allows for a relationship to be examined between body and water... Revealing parts of Omani's society that uniform was always made to hide.

DETAILED INFORMATION COMING SOON

Often the study of western portraiture brings a lot of dialogue surrounding concepts of representation, race and accessibility. It’s far too often we see only white faces in art books in both school rooms and in the majority of westernised institutes, galleries and museums.
Lately we have seen the floor open to a lot more recognised artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye or Titus Kaphar add a much needed spotlight on the often ignored black faces of our past and present.
But what about all the faces in-between black and white skin tones?
What about the inclusivness of all people, regardless of their skin tone?
 
My attempt at painting portraiture via vibrant (water)colours and not skin tones is a personal attempt at refraining from entering into the non verbalised, discriminatory and often racist dialogue usually incurred in the western arts world through highly policed and politicised analysis of how to look at portraiture and what is traditionally defined as 'beautiful’. It is an attempt to not orientalise any specific group of people but instead unite through representation.

In short; it's my attempt at getting rid of the very limited view of acceptable (and expected) skin tone & profile in western portraiture and hopefully celebrating the beautiful differences we have in shapes & features, allowing for a space of similarity through the use of colour and water mixed pigments instead.. After all, other then flesh, we are all parts of life's rainbow, with bodies mainly made up of water.

Images created during the production of varying projects.