Farah Al Qasimi is an Emirati contemporary visual artist who is about to showcase her first long-form video piece Um Al Naar (Mother of Fire 2019), at a solo show in America. Speaking of the piece, Qasimi stated, “It’s been exciting to learn how to let a story unfold slowly.”
The female Emirati artist’s video piece which first previewed at Art Basel Statements is 40 minutes long, and in the format of a TV documentary. Um Al Naar shadows a ghostly entity that appears under a sheet and conveys confessional speech. Farah Al Qasimi said of the ghost-like character, “It was a challenge to animate the jinn character without the use of limbs or a face.”
The creature’s monologue deliberates how the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah was influenced by British and Portuguese colonialist regimes, and discusses “the influence of European encroachment on the region.”
Al Qasimi uses video, performance and photography to create her works, and through her art forms, sparks discussion about “identity along the lines of gender, nationality, and class.” She is also set to present another solo show at Dubai based gallery, The Third Line, on September 18th 2019.
