ART CITIES:Dubai-Tarek Al-Ghoussein

As a Kuwaiti of Palestinian origin, much of Tarek Al-Ghoussein’s work deals with how his identity is shaped in a context of inaccessibility and loss. His work explores the boundaries between landscape photography, self-portraiture and performance art. He is a prominent photographer known for his works that combine elements of landscape, portrait photography and Performance.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: The Third Line Gallery Archive

Evocative photographs depicting abandoned spaces and objects examine both personal and general associations with the Middle East. Tarek Al-Ghoussein’s photographs of deteriorating buildings do not seek to glamorize the decay but neither are they a detached form of documentation. His solo exhibition “Odysseus”, explores a selection of new works from his ongoing series “Odysseus” where Al-Ghoussein sets out to document a number of islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi where he resides. His fascination with the sheer existence of the islands sparked his curiosity to start documenting them back in 2015. Out of the 215 Islands, Al-Ghoussein visited and photographed approximately 30 so far, his pursuit of a complete survey has been challenged by gaps in public information about the islands, access restrictions, and most notably pending permission requests. While he remains hopeful the project can find a path to completion, like the odyssey, the journey is much longer than expected. Skillfully employing a strong sense of surrealism with their dreamlike color spectrum and whimsical compositions, the world of Al-Ghoussein is at once both delightful and disquieting. Raising more questions than providing answers, the photographs lack specific geographical signifiers, despite being shot in real places. The playful and often absurd interaction between the artist and these dreamscapes leads the viewers to question the islands’ ambiguous reality, and perhaps existence. Gradually fading from his own consciousness, Al-Ghoussein chose to omit the islands completely from some of the images, where he can be seen alone at sea, until even himself is absent from the picture in perhaps pondering his own place, as an artist, or more significantly as an Abu Dhabi resident, in relation to the geopolitical landscape of the islands.

Photo: Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Abu Dhabi Archipelago (Al Habel Al Abyad), 2015- , Digital Print, 60 x 80cm, © Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Courtesy the artist and The Third Line Gallery

Info: The Third Line Gallery, Warehouse 78 & 80, (Exit 43 off Sheikh Zayed Road), Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, Duration: 22/3-5/5/2021, Days & Hours: Sun-Thu 10:00-19:00, http://thethirdline.com