July 2013: "Departed and Gone to the Unseen", Janet Clayton Gallery Sydney, AUSTRALIA
"The blurring of the boundaries between drawing and painting is tackled in Saif Almurayati's Departed And Gone To The Unseen, at Janet Clayton Gallery in Sydney. Almurayati, an Iraqi-born artist who migrated to Australia in 1998, has taken the rich tradition of Islamic calligraphy and applied it in large-scale paintings where an undulating sea of words creates abstract expanses of colour and line. Drawing and writing are closely related, activities of the hand and wrist, and Almurayati gives his paintings the feel of calligraphy mixed with the uncertainty of abstract paintings.
The Guardian
"Saif’s story is aspirational and inspirational, eroding the myth of the refugee as alien outcast threatening the Australian way of life. On the contrary, Australia, isolated from the hubs of Europe and Asia, has been able to expand its horizons, strengthening its place in global society through the contribution of untold numbers of those seeking a better way of life here.
Almurayati's work has been described as: "an outstanding expression of what many people that are the refugees and economic and political diaspora throughout the globe experience and feel." Amnesty International
The Guardian
"Saif’s story is aspirational and inspirational, eroding the myth of the refugee as alien outcast threatening the Australian way of life. On the contrary, Australia, isolated from the hubs of Europe and Asia, has been able to expand its horizons, strengthening its place in global society through the contribution of untold numbers of those seeking a better way of life here.
Almurayati's work has been described as: "an outstanding expression of what many people that are the refugees and economic and political diaspora throughout the globe experience and feel." Amnesty International
THE BLAKE PRIZE - Interview with MUA Award for Human justice winner Saif Almurayati - Unfolding History
"Saif Almurayati has received the MUA Blake Prize for Human Justice for his DVD Unfolding History. Entranced by listening to the Islamic chant, he’s recaptured glimpses of his earliest memories; at his Grandmother’s house, throughout refugee camps and his subsequent experiences in Australia. It’s his personal story, the apparent loss of identity and the acknowledgement that the process of change is not unique. "
MEDIA RELEASE - For immediate release: 11am, Thursday 8 November 2012- The Blake Prize 2012
MEDIA RELEASE - For immediate release: 11am, Thursday 8 November 2012- The Blake Prize 2012
The MUA Blake Prize for Human Justice - Media Release
The MUA Blake Prize is awarded for a work that addresses issues around the nature of Human Justice. This year it is awarded to Unfolding History, 2012, a digital work by artist Saif Almurayati. This work presents a range of labels and signs rendered in English and Arabic script that, like slogans, seek to name issues of identity for this Iraqi born artist. Having lived in three different cultures, now including Australia, Almurayati traces and then erases the labels that are used to define and limit the nature of individual identity as it slips between these cultures. It is a pulsing visual work undergirded by a traditional religious chant that evokes the wider search for meaning found in the experiences of those who are displaced.
The work while dealing with loss, also builds towards a possible new synthesis, as Almurayati describes. ‘The religious Shi'a rhythm as a soundtrack of this erasure video helps me to drive to my buried memories and go into a trance that allows me to express freely my loss of identity. By writing and erasing I am trying to create an unusual spiritual relationship between the text, the sound and the audience.’ This sense of loss becomes an opportunity of letting go towards new possibilities. This visual record and rhythmic soundtrack gives evidence of the wider terms in which Australian identity is currently being formed. It raises questions about the narrow definitions of national identity that we have clung too in times of change.
Saif Almurayati’s work is an outstanding expression of what many people that are the refugees and economic and political diaspora throughout the globe experience and feel. This stressful, and at times, tragic mobilisation, is often not of their own choosing but a survival mechanism. Almurayati captures the challenge of how people search for their place in new cultures. The work reflects the patience and determination required to meet new demands, along with the flexibility and imagination to cope with constancy of change and movement. The MUA is proud to sponsor the Blake Prize for Human Justice, and the many impressive submissions we reviewed are a testament to the artistic endeavours pursued by many Australians and the importance of the Blake Prize for Human Justice.
The MUA Human Justice prize is sponsored by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) who have a long history of working with artists and filmmakers to break new ground in challenging the perceptions we have about the Society in which we live. The MUA represents around 11,000 Australian stevedoring workers, seafarers and port workers. As a key affiliate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, it also helps represent 320,000 of the world's seafarers, who depend on ITF affiliates like the MUA for wage justice and protection against human rights abuses. Further information about the MUA can be found at www.mua.org.au
Paddy Crumlin National Secretary MUA Rev Dr Rod Pattenden Chair Blake Society
EXPOSITION A L'ESPACE A DEBATTRE AUTOUR DU THEME QU'EST CE QUE L'ART ?
POURQUOI L'ART ? QUELLES SONT LES LIMITES DE L'ART ?, Nice, Septembre 2011
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QU'EST CE QUE L'ART ? POURQUOI L'ART ? QUELLES SONT LES LIMITES DE L'ART ?SAMEDI 3 SEPTEMBRE
Exposition collective. Tous ces tableaux posent une interrogation et contiennent une attitude envers l'art.
SUZANNE DUCHAMP, ROBERT EREBO, MAERCEL BATAILLARD, GERALD PANIGHI, RUY BLAS, SAÏSSI, FRANCOIS GUINOCHET, BERNAR VENET, SERGE MACAFFERRI, DEVAUX, ALBINET, SAIF ALMURAYATI,RABBA, JOEL DUCOROY, CHARLES DREYFUS, C.NATHALIE.
Mais aussi des oeuvres de DALLIGAND, SNYERS, MAX HORDE, DANIEL BUREN, SERGE III, BEN VAUTIER.
Au programme également un defilé de mode avec des robes magnifiques de Sadio BEE et Ben Vautier.
Mais aussi des oeuvres de DALLIGAND, SNYERS, MAX HORDE, DANIEL BUREN, SERGE III, BEN VAUTIER.
Au programme également un defilé de mode avec des robes magnifiques de Sadio BEE et Ben Vautier.
"Incognito Exhibition", Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, Juillet 2011
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Past Exhbitions
Extraits de presse
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"L' exposition "Flowers of Devotion" de l'artiste peintre australien d'orignie irakienne a été organisé à Jakarta, fin 2005, une exposition de poèmes, surates et hadiths rédigés en calligraphie arabe et illustrés. Assez provocatrice, les toiles mélangent images et messages religieux,l’exposition a été bien accueillie dans la capitale. "
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"Arampini means ‘relations’ and showcases the work of over 20 artists from two distinct artist communities from the Tiwi Islands.
It’s an exhibition that allowed a few Sydney art students the privilege of working with some of the artists exhibiting and also offered the public a greate experience." |
ONLINE PRESS
http://www.blakeprize.com/news/interview-saif-almurayati
www.blakeprize.com/file.../MediaRelease_TheBlakePrize2012.pdf
www.art-almanac.com.au/.../2012-blake-prize-winners-announced/
http://media.watoday.com.au/news/national-news/unfolding-history-wins-justice-award-3779403.html
www.theage.com.au › Entertainment › Art and Design
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/controversy-misses-the-mark-in-blake-prize-20120925-26j1a.html
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/innocence-personified-by-blake-prize-winner-20121108-28zlt.html
http://presenceweb.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/exposition-incognito-saif-almurayati/
http://www.art11.com/annuaires/expo/resultat.html?p=29&do=s&date=&titre=&lieu=&artiste=&mois=&orga=&pays=&&web=0
http://www.parisetudiant.com/etudiant/sortie/exposition-incognito.html
http://citedesarts.pagesperso-orange.fr/newsjuillet11.htm
http://m.parisetudiant.com/sortir-a-paris-evenement.php?ne=exposition-incognito&date=05072011
http://thenearandtheelsewhere.blogspot.com/2010/12/national-art-school-undergraduate.html