Reviewing the Past by Zoltán Somhegyi

Author:Zoltán Somhegyi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786607621
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd

When in Works

EBSCOhost - printed on 6/25/2020 9:27 AM via MCGILL UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

Chapter 7

Cracks in the Walls1

“Don’t trust the concrete.” We find this enigmatic sentence on a series of works by the Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem titled Concrete Block. The art pieces in this series consist of life-size replicas of concrete road blocks that we are all familiar with, whether from direct experience, or from documentaries, press photos, or fiction movies and that are usually placed to block pedestrians and vehicles from accessing certain defended areas, including government buildings, embassies, luxury hotels, etc. In a departure from their usual and expected context and appearance, these pieces are now part of exhibitions. One Concrete Block (2010) for example was placed between two rooms in a 2015 exhibition at the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, partly blocking the visitors’ way while passing to see the other art pieces on the show in the adjacent room. The artwork has various references, and we can peel off several layers of interpretation: The first one is obviously the critique and the doubt in the efficiency of blocking others in their desperate attempt to trespass certain areas. Whether symbolic or physical blocks, (i.e., borders or walls) thousands try to overcome them, as we can regularly read in daily news from all over the world, including, among others, the Middle East, Europe, USA-Mexican border, etc. Hence, the art piece reminds us that we can never be sure that concrete is an efficient solution; naturally, also not forgetting the moral and humanitarian issues and concerns connected to the use and application of such massive objects of physical separation.

Another layer of meaning connected to the artwork of Abdulnasser Gharem is more art-theoretical and related to the artwork itself as an object: getting closer to it—as the visitors of the aforementioned show were required to do since they wanted to see the works in the other room of the exhibition—we realise that it is a pure replica. Hence the phrase “don’t trust the concrete” is also an imperative referring to the importance of a constant critical stance towards the seemingly evident and obvious. Things—just like events, intentions, or proclamations—very often might not be what they seem, and actually that is true also in the case of the work in question: The seemingly concrete block is made of a plywood structure covered with rubber stamps that bear the Arabic text. Indeed, through this process of material transformation the work also reexamines, reinterprets, and even reverses the concept of ready-made. Marcel Duchamp exhibited everyday and found objects, thus challenging the concept of art and artwork by showing unmodified objects of non-artistic origin and non-artistic intention and, in fact, up till today these works are exhibited in spaces that are generally considered places for art, like galleries and museums. Abdulnasser Gharem replays the process the other way around, as he creates an artwork that looks like a simple found object exhibited in a museum context, hence the ready-made concrete block turns out to be a regular(ly) “made” work of art.

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