• 2 days ago
From using tissue papers, to nail polish and tea bags, Dubai-based artist Samar Kamel has her own unique ways of delivering a message to the wider community.

The Egyptian artist who moved to Dubai 30 years ago with her husband, is an author with two published works and curator of World Art Dubai (WAD). She said that she was sitting in her studio, savouring a cup of tea, when the idea of using tea bags for her paintings struck her.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3KWC8Yu

See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km

Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV

#UAEnews #artists #art
Transcript
00:00My name is Samar Kamel. I'm an artist and a writer. I'm the curator for World Art Dubai.
00:06And we are here, and welcome to my studio.
00:10So this painting, these two paintings are unfinished paintings.
00:14This one is, the teabag is the one I told you about.
00:17And I discovered this technique by coincidence because I love drinking tea every afternoon.
00:25And one day I was just, you know, squeezing the teabag like we always do.
00:30And it just got torn.
00:32And I looked at the teabag and I loved the pigment.
00:36So I started collecting the teabags, like here.
00:40Let me show you.
00:44So here, as you see, I have all the teabags.
00:46All teabags.
00:47Yeah.
00:48I collect them and then when they dry, I just open the teabag.
00:52And then I get rid of the leaves.
00:54Yeah.
00:55And then I let them dry like this.
00:57Okay.
00:58And then after that, I sketch whatever I want.
01:03So you just like sketching them?
01:05No, I sketch on my canvas.
01:07And then after sketching on the canvas, I just start sticking it on the canvas and I start painting it.
01:16So this one is made with teabags.
01:19The face.
01:20The face of the woman.
01:21The face of the woman.
01:22Is made with teabags.
01:23Ah, okay.
01:24Those girls are made with teabags.
01:26Wow.
01:27This one as well.
01:28It's because it's close to the color of the skin.
01:30Yeah, the pigment is close to our skin.
01:32So I just add tiny colors like white, yellow, ochre, and little bit of brown.
01:39These two as well are made with teabags.
01:41It's a place where I just empty my mind.
01:45But it differs.
01:47If I have an exhibition, so I might spend like 10 hours painting.
01:53Like before World Art Dubai, I had this series.
01:56It's called La Vie.
01:58It's this one, and this one, and this one.
02:02It's basically a circus.
02:05Ah, okay.
02:06So I see life as a circus, so you can see this one.
02:09It's like the clown and the juggler.
02:13The juggler is like mainly multitasking.
02:16I'm not going to be a fanatic, radical feminist and say like women multitask.
02:22Because all of us, we're multitasking right now.
02:24And this one, the woman who is blindfolded on a darting board.
02:30And she's placed on a carousel.
02:34It's mainly all of us.
02:36We're going round and round.
02:39When she's blindfolded and with the knives just hitting her.
02:46Mainly, it's still all of us.
02:49Because sometimes you just don't know where the stab is getting hit.
02:55You don't know who's going to hit you.
02:58And the clown, the sad clown.
03:00It's a cliche, but you know.
03:02Again, I'm not going to be saying that I'm a feminist.
03:05But I do care a lot about women's issues and struggles.
03:10So my paintings and my books are mainly about women.
03:14So I have two books.
03:16Her Secret Garden and Republic of the Women.
03:19They are in bookstores in Egypt.
03:23And one of them is here in Coney Konya Dubai Mall.
03:27So here they are.
03:29This book is Hadikata Siraya, which means Her Secret Garden.
03:34And it's ten stories.
03:37And they are inspired by real women.
03:40So these are real stories.
03:42Stories about women around me.
03:46And it's...
03:48I don't want to say they are sad, but they are real.
03:51And these 15 short stories.
03:5515 short stories.
03:57It's Republic of the Women.
03:59And these are inspired by my paintings.
04:03So each painting has a story.
04:09I've been the curator for World Art Dubai for four years now.
04:13And it's one of the most important art events in the region.
04:20Because it's an international and affordable art fair.
04:25It hosts around...
04:27This time we had like 4,000 paintings.
04:31And we had around 50 international countries.
04:38Yeah.
04:39And this edition was the 8th edition.
04:43And we were the only art fair that hosted this event during 2020.
04:52All the other events were cancelled.