Category: Public Art in Qatar

Showcasing the relationship between human and non-human worlds.

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Public Art in Qatar

Final Brief

Environmental humanities is an interdisciplinary field that employs distinct humanistic studies about natural world and the role of humans living in it with a view to looking at ranges that are far beyond literary studies. As per Qatar, there are numerous public arts installed that can potentially be linked to environmental humanities, such as Force of Nature, On their Way, Falcon, Gates to the Sea and many more, because the study of these public art installations indeed allows us to recognize the interdisciplinary nature of the message that they are trying to convey. This course indeed inspired me to analyze the relationship between the human and nonhuman world through a comparative environmental study of public art installations in Qatar; and also led me to a question “Though these sculptures might meticulously showcase the relationship between the human and nonhuman world, to what extent are they considering their own interests/benefits or how far it is more of an anthropocentrism rather than an even balance of both human and nonhuman world?”

The significance of modern and contemporary public art installations in Qatar lies in internalizing an ecological responsibility through the power of art, but at the same time bringing out the depiction of the national representation. As for the public art installations, most of them were created by foreign artists, where the sculptures intently showcase the relationship between the natural world and human world, but the overarching theme of anthropocentrism is still vividly conspicuous. Therefore, in my final brief, I will explore the potential grounds and motivation of these foreign artists establishing their artwork in Qatar with ecological consciousness, while at the same time depicting the national representation or identity, which definitely counterbalances the anthropocentrism over biocentrism.

For instance, in the case of “Falcon”, it is known to be one of the renowned public art installations in Qatar that was created by a Dutch sculptor, Tom Claassen. He made this sculpture with a view to portraying the significance of nature and wildlife by an abstract representation of Qatar’s national bird. This immediately brings forth the book “How Forests Think” by Eduardo Kohn, where he explicitly enforces the readers to step out of an anthropocentric perspective, re-think and re-evaluate humans’ actions. It is because the scholarship of this book indeed responds to the sculpture “Falcon”, as it shows the falcon merely as a human activity and ‘almost’ camouflages the true identity of the bird and its intrinsic value in nature. As an illustration, the falcon is covered in a fabric of Qatar’s traditional attire and the lines/curves on its feathers are found in the Arabic calligraphy; which definitely serves the purpose of representing the national identity of Qatar but again does it really depict the wildlife in its natural habitat?

Building up the argument, there is another secondary source “What is Posthumanism” by Cary Wolfe, who also supports the claim that the topic of anthropocentrism is a problematic position. And as the title of this book already suggests, Wolfe is also seeking to find an answer for ‘posthumanism’; but most importantly can this new kind of philosophical perspective respond to both the technological and environmental continuum in the long run?

Furthermore, with respect to the artworks made by Sue Coe that essentially include animal rights commentary and are portrayed powerfully in showing the scenes of animal suffering, there are some critiques made about her artwork. For instance, Cary Wolfe openly extended his response to Sue Coe’s artwork, explicitly stating that her artwork’s representational choices should be far more significant than the impact it has on the audience. And this entails the fact that Wolfe is more interested in physical representation of the artwork rather than the contextual representation, because Wolfe sees Sue Coe’s artwork not only anthropocentric but also “committed to this posthumanist question in a humanist way”. Now, linking it back to the sculpture “Falcon”, I can still criticize it the same way Wolfe did to Coe’s artwork. As a matter of fact, the falcon acts as a metaphor representing the national identity of Qatar as well as ‘allegedly’ depicting the wildlife. However, I as an audience along with Wolfe, we do not look for ‘metaphor’ or the hidden message behind the sculpture, but rather the representational choices and the artistic intentions of the artwork. Seeing that Tom Claassen aimed to create this sculpture with an intention of representing the natural wildlife, he should have let the falcon exhibits its authenticity in its true natural habitat, in order to give importance to its intrinsic value. But unfortunately, from the audience’s perspective, the first thing we see is the golden coverage that immediately evokes the atmosphere of royalty, rather than nature or environment. And second, the facial expression of the falcon is not visible at all – stressing on the fact that the falcon as a bird is barely significant. Thus, this conspicuously shows that the sculpture “Falcon” is subtly regarded as a human activity that attracts the audience as an object or a simple sculpture, instead of actually ‘showing’ the true colors of the falcon.

Nonetheless, in order to strengthen my argument, this final brief will look into another public art installation in Qatar that can contribute to the claim from a different angle. “On their Way” is another sculpture that was made by a French artist Roch Vandromme, which vividly mirrors the enriching culture of Qatar comprising the figure of four camels that represent the continuation of the dynamic relationship between humans and camels. In this case, Vandromme dedicated his work for the camels in their natural habitat, and the sculpture as a whole is indeed an embodiment of portraying Qatar’s long history of nomadic lifestyle and the human-camel progressive relationship over the course of time. Thus, we can see that there is an even balance of depicting the national representation/identity as well as providing equal acknowledgement for the natural world. It is because this can be deduced from the absence of humans that infers the rejection of ‘human exceptionalism’ – also highlighting the fact the sculpture is not anthropocentric at all.

As mentioned earlier, Vandromme depicts the camels in their natural habitat – and this is vivid from the fact that there are two calves and two mature camels standing very ‘naturally’, but most importantly their facial expressions are very clearly shown. This again actively demonstrates that the representational choices of Roch Vandromme were very deliberate and, henceforth this counterclaims the argument “we cannot see as much as we think we can” made by Cary Wolfe. The sculpture indeed responds to this statement by Wolfe, because as an audience we can clearly see the facial expressions, body language and the significance of the camels immediately, rather than attempting to seek the hidden message or the metaphor behind it. That is why, this sculpture by Roch Vandromme, a foreign artist, certainly proved to depicting the national representation/identity as well as gave equal importance to both human activity (the sculpture itself) and the natural world (the camels in their natural habitat).

All in all, through the analysis of these public art installations in Qatar and linking them with secondary sources from distinct fields of study indeed gave me an exposure of exploring environmental humanities overall. And I believe that Qatar intentionally gave the opportunity to foreign artists, in order to invest in Qatar’s arts in general, with a view to holistically represent Qatar’s identity as well add their ‘own’ contribution and motivation, whether it is environment-related or history-related. However, as I was closely arguing that the grounds and motivation of foreign artists is not only creating their work for national representation, but with a strong ecological consciousness, where the concept of anthropocentrism is very limited. As seen from the sculptures discussed above, some of them are merely serving the purpose of ‘being a metaphor’ for some hidden meaning and very less thought is provided on the artwork itself. While others are very deliberate with the minute details of the artwork and the audience is undoubtedly convinced with the representational choices of the work made by the artist.

“I want my monumental works to have even more of an effect on the public. The moment the sculpture enters the common space, it is no longer mine. My ownership ceases and it becomes the people’s.”

– Lorenzo Quinn

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Public Art in Qatar Uncategorized

Qatar’s Growing Public Art: Connection or Guilt?

Human reliance on nonhuman phenomena is a topic many environmental humanities thinkers address in their work. In “After Oil”, the Petrochemicals Group makes the claim that contemporary human societies are “oil societies shaped by physical and material ways” (9). The article contends that the use of fossil fuels significantly impacts and alters human behaviour and attitude toward both human and nonhuman entities, including their beliefs and sentiments toward these phenomena. On a physical and material level, petroculture is intrinsically linked to human existence; the commodity profoundly influences our existence in many aspects, whether it be social, economic, or behavioural. We reside in a fossil fuel dominated society which illuminates global inequality, being a major contributor toward regional poverty depending on the ‘petroculture’ states that exercises temporary power over nature’s finite resources. In contemporary society, the commodity exercises enormous control over human behaviour and interaction toward other human and nonhuman beings. In the particular case of public art installations in Qatar, I have previously contended in my blog posts that the state’s rapid transition from a traditionalist-poor to an oil-rich economy has seen it become estranged from its natural roots in a bid to forge a materialistic relationship with its natural resources. In this final brief, I aim to examine the impact of economic development on Qatar’s social and cultural landscape. To support my claims, I will offer a more in-depth analysis of two prominent public art installations based in Qatar – “Gates to the Sea” and “On their Way”. With the illustration of these sculptures, I will be assessing whether or not the progress in Qatar’s present economic milieu has deteriorated the state’s relationship with its traditional customs and nature. Is Qatar, in a desperate attempt to hold onto their roots, forging an artistic route back to its natural origins in the guise of showcasing relevant art? This also begs the following question: is a state so heavily dependent on petroculture really striving to retain its pre-petromodern roots? Or are these art installations mere showpieces installed to alleviate the guilt toward Qatar’s fading identity? 

According to The Petrocultures Research Group (2015), natural commodities worth high monetary value plays a pivotal role in shaping human values, practices, habits, beliefs, and feelings (9). As a result, human beings become ‘a petroculture’ in and of themselves. Thus, by virtue of its identity, the state of Qatar in itself is a petroculture. Bergthaller (2017) presents this concept by metaphorising oil-rich economies as addicts and then raises the question of the social and cultural cost petromodernity holds for these states given their excessive dependency on oil (424).

To begin my argument, I would like to argue that Qatar, despite its tremendous economic standing today, has not become alienated from the nature that birthed it. The Petrocultures Research Group highlights that a country needs to transform and transition its cultural and social values parallel to its economic development. With reference to Fattal’s “Gates to the Sea” (depicting a rectangular-shaped time portal reflecting the swift shift in the country’s social and economic milieu), it can be claimed that Qatar stands firm with its ties to its past. The rectangular shaped sculpture stands tall in front of the Qatar National Museum, accentuating the notion that anyone and everyone can step through the time portal at any time to experience Qatar’s history. The artpiece implies that it is easy to immerse oneself into Qatar’s traditional ways of life because the country still maintains close ties with its past. Furthermore, it is accurate to contend that in contemporary society, economically troubled economies such as Qatar which suffered financially had to develop in all aspects in order to maintain parity with the rest of the world. The previous argument made by the Petrocultures Research Group stands firm, because without social and cultural development, a country might be doomed to underdevelopment and poverty.

Additionally, with reference to the sculpture “On Their Way” illustrating one of the most important nonhuman elements present in past and present Qatari culture – camels – I would again like to emphasise that although standing in the fast lane toward economic success, Qatar still stands loyal to its roots. The portrayal of the four camels (two calves and two mature) can be seen accentuating this standpoint. The two calves represent the modern Qatar – the petroculture state – while the two mature camels may be seen representing the country’s past relationship with its natural, nonhuman phenomena which the country clearly continues to cherish. Additionally, there are two main perspectives from which one might observe the sculpture: one from which the camels are walking forward and another in which they are remaining still. Again, the former perspective showcases Qatar’s economic prosperity as it preserves its roots. Similarly, the latter hints at the country’s commitment to staying firm on its cultural and social values. Both cases represent Qatar’s present relation to its past.

On the contrary, I would like to present the argument of Qatar’s inability or unwillingness to maintain a connection to its past cultural identity. The Petrocultures Research Group states that oil is merely a source of energy, but also a deeply ingrained social phenomenon (17). Oil is a social factor as much as it is a natural resource, playing an influential role in shaping our social and cultural identities. Although one may contend that either a positive or negative effect could result from this, for the purpose of this argument I will be assuming that the outcome is largely unfavourable due to Qatar’s continued economic development but disregard for its historical characteristics. Therefore, one may wonder why there lies so much representation of the traditional past when Qatar has been drifting away from it both socially and economically. What interests do these artworks really serve? Are they a reminder of Qatar’s past, or have they been established solely on the basis of alleviating Qatar’s guilt toward betraying its customs and traditions?

One may claim that Qatar is actively installing public artwork purely as showpieces to veil its abandonment of  the nature and customs that had once supported it in favour of petro-modern culture. As the state’s natural environments and customs continue to diminish in contemporary Qatari society, the past is increasingly being showcased through sculptures and other art forms; the country is creating a synthetic relationship with its past to maintain a connection to its origins, but how long can reality be dismissed? The reality that, given the rate of growth, how long will Qatar actually care enough to preserve the past, when the present and future looks so promising? Both the artworks under examination suggest that Qatar cares more about the petrocultural present than the past, representing their increasing neglect toward their customs and traditions. 

Furthermore, although Qatar might have gained freedom in the sense that it does not possess the need to heavily rely on foreign imports and lending, Bergthaller doubts this freedom and self-reliance if it relies on something other than the self (425). Qatar may no longer be dependent on other countries, but at what social cost? It may be flourishing economically, but the state is paying a high social cost in that it is, as Bergthaller phrases it, losing its ‘self’ in regard to its past relationship with its surrounding nature and nonhuman entities.

Additionally, the Petrocultures Research Group also puts forth a critique toward the future of economies booming on the basis of their reliance on oil. The repercussions on economies, like Qatar’s, will be inevitably destructive; the most detrimental consequence of their reliance on oil continues while humans stay oblivious to their estrangement from their roots and becoming dominated by fossil fuels which will have vast social and cultural implications when the oil runs out. Thus, given that Qatar is on the verge of completely transforming into a ‘petroculture’ in the coming years, the question of what the state will hold as its economic identity when the oil runs out? Although the government is fully aware of the consequences arising from this, the argument stands whether Qatar is doing enough to detach itself from its petrocultured identity.

The Petrocultures Research Group also asserts that if one is to envision a society after oil, it needs to first comprehend the current consequences oil is having on human lifestyle (15). I believe that this is a predicament Qatar desperately needs to contemplate and act upon because it will go on to have generational repercussions in all facets of human lifestyle, whether it be social, cultural or economic. Extensive human reliance on nature’s resources is hardly bound to end well, considering the extent of human exploitation against nature.

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Public Art in Qatar

Final brief

First of all, I’d like to acknowledge the value of the initiative “Doing Environmental Humanities in Doha” brought by the course of Environmental Humanities that inspired us to ask questions on the matters of ‘nature’, ‘ecology’, ‘modernity’, ‘energy’, ‘capital’ and ‘humanity’ that were in our minds, somewhere in the background, undiscussed. Within the framework of ecocritical theories, we engaged in conversations on human exceptionalism, petroculture, nature-culture dichotomy, ecofeminism, posthumanism, eco-Marxism, environmental justice, and apocalypse. From all of these, I found the relationship between humans and non-humans exciting and provoking. For the first time, I had the forethought to care about the ecosystem’s point of view concerning humans.

This eventually led to the question of how to keep a balance between the significance of humanity and of ecology and how both of these could coexist in harmony. Many experts in the field of environmental humanities have already contemplated a lot about “the representation of non-human”. From the perspective of the history of science, scholars like Lorraine Daston were skeptical of the mobilization of nature for symbolic representation of human practices, social norms, and morality. She mainly argued to question the adaptation of norms and values from the realm of ‘natural’ because she found neither ‘specific natures’ nor ‘local natures’ the adequate source for the organization of human norms and morality. In the “Public Art” initiative I chose the ‘Falcon’ sculpture by Tom Claasen in Doha, and argued that exploiting non-humans by using the symbol of the falcon as a symbol of Qatar’s aviation industry ‘naturalizes’ the hazardous environmental externalities caused by air travel. Daston’s argument was helpful in raising questions about the sculpture and examining the symbolism of the nature-culture relationship and continuation of the falcon’s experience of flight. We should be skeptical of the mobilization of the natural because Daston made it clear that ‘natures’ in the non-human world don’t resemble the same norms and values humans possess.

Biodiversity scholars like Ursula K. Heise questioned the effectiveness of allegory in representing the environment and argued that we should seek for alternative representations to capture both human heterogeneity and harmony of the global ecology. Ursula argued allegory has infiltrated the global environmental imagination and thought and that we should seek representations more complex than allegory which could “accommodate social and cultural multiplicity”. For example, by the allegory of the global, Heise suggested the Gaia hypothesis and the blue marble image. The allegory represents the world as simple and whole, while neglecting the complexities important to capture ecological connectedness and cultural heterogeneity at the same time. I used her skepticism of allegory and its alternative representations to analyze the complex system of human-sea relationships represented by the sculpture ‘Gates to the Sea’ by Simone Fattal in Doha. Even though the sculpture doesn’t contain the allegory of the global, it is open to Heise’s criticism because it’s a broad allegory of national history. While trying to imagine the connection between the past of pearl fishing and the intimate relation with the ocean led to continuous development and the petromodern present, some degree of cultural complexity and environmental conflict gets elided. The sculpture seems to be constructed on a positive note and abandoning the environmentally hazardous events, implying that human’s relationship with the sea was continuously benevolent and extraction of sea resources like pearl, oil, and gas didn’t cause any disturbance for marine life. There is some doubt in this optimistic view, as both in the past and now there is a threat to coral reefs and the risk of oil leakage.

AsapScience (2019), Camel eye, Twitter

Eduardo Kohn, an anthropologist, argues in his well-known book “How Forests Think” that it is important to recognize that non-human beings have their own perspectives on the human world. According to him, the logic of form governs the logic of living thinking, and the brains of humans and other species are distinct in how they see the world and how they express it. He wondered what would happen to thought if it was free from intention. It is impossible to morph into other forms and we could only imagine the perspective of that form looking at us and visualizing the human world from its point of view. Another living form has a different world vision due to differences in the sense of perception, level of salience, consciousness, memory capacity, and brain complexity. So, in an attempt to acknowledge the point of view of animals concerning us, it’s our obligation to study the features of the form of thinking and be transparent and accountable as much as possible in displaying them accurately in environmental humanities. If in literature these features could be described, explained, and comprehended in a written text, what are the implications for the visual text present in arts? What are the ways in which the artist should represent the non-human world and avoid attaching anthropocentric views and meaning to his/her work of art? Compared to interacting with a living animal, what are the challenges in interacting with the human-made sculpture? And the question emerging from the previous is how could we make the interaction with the work of public art more engaging and insightful than the interaction with the animal. I explored the sculpture “On Their Way” created by Roch Vandromme in Doha which depicts the dynamic and intimate relationship between humans and camels. The magnificent sculpture of two calves and two mature dromedaries stands near National Museum for families with their children to interact with. Even though the sculpture allows people to appreciate the beauty and elegance of camels and recognize the animals as the life companions of past and present, the sculpture seems to exclude the camel’s point of view. Kohn’s anthropocentric narcissism is openly manifested in this one-way interaction where the visitor interacts with the sculpture of the camel but receives no feedback from the sculpture. At the same time, the visitor leaves the sculpture without acknowledging the camel’s point of view and without imagining how the camel would perceive the human in the camel’s eyes. Kohn’s logic of forms explains the drastic difference in thinking and world vision between human and non-human living forms. Kohn would argue for the acknowledgment of the camel’s point of view in the ‘On their way’ sculpture.

‘On Their Way’ by Roch Vandromme

In order to encapsulate the camel’s point of view, one of my suggestions is to install video cameras in the camel’s eyes and broadcast the live video on the screen near the sculpture. It’s also possible to put the camera filters to integrate the features of the camel’s vision: add a translucent layer to imitate the third eyelid which is thin enough to allow the camel to see even when the eyes are closed. To replicate this, the camera can adjust the shutter speed option to imitate the eyes closing when the camel is blinking and at the same time leaving available light reaching the lens to make the image translucent. Also, the video can have a filter with sand flowing into the camel’s eyes, then the camera shattering and opening back to mimic the eyelid working as a windshield wiper to remove the sand. Also, the upper part of the video can display large and long lashes to simulate the lashes on the upper eyelid that camels have. All of these effects together with the video could be translated onto the screen visitors are looking at. This might allow seeing our reflection, the image of ourselves projected through the perspective of the camel’s point of view. I believe that this kind of technological enhancement might help us approach public art in a more accountable way making the representation of non-humans less anthropocentric.

In furtherance of the project on the representation of non-humans in public art, I would like to work more closely with the public art presented by Qatar Museums. After investigating the works of public art such as ‘Falcon’, ‘The Gates to the Sea’ and ‘On their Way’, I found out, as I mentioned earlier, these are constructed on a positive note, mobilizing, using, adapting, and integrating nature for the optimistic display of human life, history, practices, norms, and values. In order to avoid one-way interaction with public art, I suggest that the subject of the sculpture should be able to interact with the human as well. This could be done at least through the visual feedback which I suggested for the sculpture ‘On their way’, so visitors can perceive themselves through the subject’s POV. I think the ambition to capture the vision of animals through public art could invite not only artists and experts from environmental humanities but also animal scientists to work on it. 

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Public Art in Qatar

On Their Way – Roch Vandromme

Vandromme’s “On Their Way” is an intriguing piece of art illustrating the relationship between humans and non-human entities. Installed outside the National Museum of Qatar, it portrays four Arabian camels sculpted out of bronze – two at the back and two at the front in a walking position. The positioning and walking motion is representative of Qatar’s past, present, and future state. It symbolises how the relationship between humans and non-human species has altered over the decades as a result of the swift shift in Qatar’s economic as well as societal state. 

Camels are a non-human entity that have always been an integral part of Qatar’s customs and traditions. Qatar’s feudal and nomadic period not so long ago was a time where humans were heavily reliant on nature and its species such as camels, for reasons such as travelling. Therefore, Vandromme’s sculpture is the ideal embodiment of representing the human and non-human relationship in Qatari tradition and its alteration over the years.I would like to portray this sculpture in two differing spotlights. The first one being the human relationship with camels as previously mentioned, and the second being the absence of human life in the sculpture, suggesting a different stance altogether. Thus to demonstrate these two ideas, I would like to incorporate the article “How Forests Think” by Eduardo Kohn into this argument.

Kohn in his article presents the argument of human exceptionalism from an anthropological perspective, contending that human and non-human species lie on the same grounds albeit the human tendency to view ourselves as a superior identity in many aspects. Kohn argues that it is crucial “to practise an anthropology that does not radically separate humans from nonhumans” (Kohn 9), and in his article he presents the Ruma people coexisting with the forest, just like how nomadic Qataris existed with camels, hence establishing a common foundation for both the human and non-human entities. Incorporating Vandromme’s artwork into this argument, the human-camel relation in Qatari culture can be contended to have changed due to the lifestyle of the Qatari people. The rapid economic development also saw the social development of Qataris, hence their lifestyles shifted from nomadic to modern, meaning that they did not need camels in their lifestyles anymore. Hence, here it can be argued that the human-nonhuman relationship was corrupt from the human side because the camels were taken advantage of until they had nothing to offer the humans. They were left forgotten in the desert after the people moved onto their lavish lifestyles. 

By the same token, the absence of humans from the artwork further reinforces this notion that the camels were left in the past with the nomadic lifestyle, and were not incorporated into the present lifestyles of the humans. This point however can be contended in the sense that Qatar still attempts to keep its cultural values and traditions alive, and non-human entities such as camels play a pivotal role in that. The depiction of the sculpture, as previously mentioned, is one of Qatar’s past, present and future. But the question that arises here is that are the non-human entities really incorporated into the present state of Qatar?

References:

Kohn, Eduardo. How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Univ of California Press, 2013.

Vandromme, Roch. “On their way (2013) at National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) Architect Jean Nouvel”.  Roch Vandromme. October 12, 2022,  https://roch-vandromme.com/musee-national-du-qatar/?lang=en.

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Public Art in Qatar

“Falcon” – by Tom Claassen

“Falcon” is one of the renowned public arts outside the departures hall of Hamad International Airport that was created by a Dutch sculptor Tom Claassen and was installed in Qatar in July 2021. This sculpture was made with a view to portraying the significance of nature and wildlife by an abstract representation of Qatar’s national bird.

Looking closely at the details of how this sculpture was created, it seems that even though the artist’s intention was to depict and appreciate the wildlife, there is still found vivid details about the sculptor that ‘almost’ camouflages the true identity of the bird. As an illustration, the falcon is covered in a fabric of Qatar’s traditional attire and the lines/curves on its feathers are found in the Arabic calligraphy; which definitely serves the purpose of representing the national identity of Qatar but does it really depict the wildlife in its natural habitat?

Moreover, the main objective of installing this sculpture in the airport is because the falcon acts as a clear parallel with the aviation routes from Qatar to the rest of the world. Thus, this reminds me of the reference of Greg Garrard’s reading Ecocriticism, where he explores the representation between the human and nonhuman, as it is shown in what he refers to it as “large scale metaphors”. As per the sculpture, the falcon is the metaphor representing the national identity of Qatar as well as ‘allegedly’ depicting the wildlife. However, I strongly argue that if Tom Claassen aimed to create this sculpture with an intention of representing the natural wildlife, he should have let the falcon exhibit its authenticity in its true natural habitat. But unfortunately, from the audience’s perspective, the first thing we see is the golden coverage that immediately evokes the atmosphere of royalty, rather than nature or environment. Second, the facial expression of the falcon is not visible at all – stressing on the fact that the falcon as a bird is barely significant. Thus, I agree with Garrard’s Ecocriticism because he is explicitly implying that the major task for ecocriticism is the ‘reconsideration of the idea of ‘the humans’’, since at the end of the day ‘the humans’ always strive to achieve what is best for them.

Furthermore, referring back to “Positions” a chapter from Garrard’s Ecocriticism, it seems that the critiques of deep ecology still see human activity as “unnatural”, in the sense of completely separating it from nature. And Garrard connotes that humans hold this position deceitfully, because they keep repeating what they are doing, as it allows them to be benefited from what they are doing. And comparing this thought with the sculpture created by Tom Claassen, we see that the activity of creating the sculpture is more or less “unnatural” and most probably, there will be more public art installations that entail the ‘notion of depicting and appreciating the nature and wildlife’, but in fact pursuing the projects that is for the most part advantageous for their personal interest.

Bibliography:

  1. Fabrique. “Falcon by Tom Claassen.” Qatar Museums. Accessed October 28, 2022. https://qm.org.qa/en/visit/public-art/tom-claassen-falcon/.
  2. “Ecocriticism (2012) – Nature in Children’s Literature and Culture.” Accessed October 28, 2022. https://blogg.hvl.no/nachilit/2017/05/29/greg-garrard-2012-ecocriticism-new-york-routledge/.
  3. Google Docs. “Garrard_positions.Pdf.” Accessed October 28, 2022. https://drive.google.com/file/u/1/d/1sNz2Tz0PoajurxfNs-8gfdW9egvK3Y4M/view?usp=drive_web&usp=embed_facebook.
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Public Art in Qatar

The “Gates to the Sea” by Simone Fattal

The “Gates to the Sea” is a public art installation created by Lebanese sculptor Simone Fattal and installed in 2019 outside the National Museums of Qatar in Doha. The rectangular-shaped and vertically aligned grey sculpture is mostly made out of clay. The art resembles a rectangular portal connecting two dimensions of life –  earthbound and marine. The piece was “inspired by the ancient petroglyphs found in Qatar at Al Jassasiya”(1). It depicts boats and fish highlighting that Qatar’s history is inseparable and inextricable from the sea.

The sculpture is an allusion to the time and place connecting both human and non-human natures. “Time is the great conceit of the sculptures of Simone Fattal and her figures look as old as the earth and yet they breathe”(2). Indeed, the ‘gate’ looks like an ancient artifact having the rock carved, and petroglyphs imprinted. Qatar Museums comments on this sculpture as the doorway between the past of Qatari’s pearl diving and the present of oil and gas extraction(3). In this blog post, I am going to argue that it’s effective to use allegories together with postmodernist public art in order to capture ecological connectedness and cultural heterogeneity at the same time. For this, I am going to rely on the skepticism of allegory and its alternative representations from the chapter “From the Blue Planet to Google Earth” in Ursula K. Heise’s book ‘Sense of Place, Sense of Planet’ (2008).

Simone Fattal

As Ursula argued allegory has infiltrated the global environmental imagination and thought. Her claims it to create a vision that will be more complex than allegory and that will be “ able to accommodate social and cultural multiplicity”(4). She described allegories as tools to treat the complexities of the world as simplicities and see the world as a whole(5). Allegories ignore the political and cultural heterogeneity, as well as the harmony and balance of the global ecology(6). She suggests experimenting with mixing allegory with other genres in order to solve that failure. This could be done by combining “allegory with modernist and postmodernist experimental modes”(7). taking this into consideration, it’s then a question whether “The Gates to the Sea” is a modernist or postmodernist public art.

From one perspective, the implicit connotation is progress, from fishing and pearl diving, the Qatari nation entered the era of oil and gas extraction. Thus, the sculpture makes an allegory of the ‘gates of progress’ or ‘gates of ‘modern civilization’. From another perspective, the sculpture explicitly doesn’t say much about the connection between humans and marine life. It’s only the text near the sculpture that states it clearly that this sculpture represents the doorway to the sea. However, judging from first sight, the rectangular-shaped sculpture with ancient petroglyphs and the carvings of fish and boats give an insight into the past relationship between local people and the sea. This is where we get to know the small portion of Qatari cultural heterogeneity Ursula Heise was talking about. Yet the sculpture doesn’t address the ecological equilibrium directly the sculpture conveys that no matter how the ecology of the sea transforms and no matter how imbalanced it becomes, the ‘gates to the sea’ will always be there.

  1. Nabeela, “National Museum of Qatar unveils details of structure and what’s inside ahead of 28 March opening,” Arts&Culture, I Love Qatar, March 19, 2019, https://www.iloveqatar.net/news/artsCulture/national-museum-of-qatar
  2.  Fattal, Simone, “On Simmone Fattal,” Simmone Fattal, https://www.simonefattal.com/on-simone-fattal/
  3. “Gates to the sea by Simmone Fattal,” Qatar Museums, https://qm.org.qa/en/visit/public-art/gates-to-the-sea/
  4. Ursula K.Heise,  Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 21
  5.  Ibid, 63
  6.  Ibid, 63-64
  7.  Ibid, 64
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Public Art in Qatar

“On their Way” – by Roch Vandromme

The public installation “On their Way” was created by a French artist, Roch Vandromme, and was installed in Qatar (National Museum) in early 2009. The sculpture vividly mirrors the enriching culture of Qatar, which comprises the figure of four camels that represent the continuation of the dynamic relationship between humans and camels. Roch Vandromme usually dedicates his works for animals in their natural habitat and surrounding; and his artistic intentions behind “On their Way” is a superb embodiment of portraying Qatar’s long history of nomadic lifestyle and the human-camel progressive relationship over time.

Looking closely at the camels, Vandromme has given them life in bronze sculptures, and his purpose behind the absence of humans in this sculpture is very deliberate. In fact, it is the absence of humans that infers the rejection of ‘human exceptionalism’ as rightly suggested in the article, “Interspecies Diplomacy in Anthropocenic Waters” by Una Chaudhuri. The very first phrase of her article, “Yes, animal, what a word!” is more or less equivalent with Vandromme’s artistic intentions behind this sculpture while acknowledging the significance of camels in Qatar’s history and culture. And perhaps, in this context from Vandromme’s perspective, it would be “Yes, camel, what a word!” – implying to the fact that camels are indeed extraordinary animals; and humans especially the people of Qatar must acknowledge and appreciate the dynamic relationship between themselves and the camels. Thus, this blog will explore both the advantages and disadvantages of establishing the interspecies diplomacy with a view to the sculpture “On Their Way” and the article “Interspecies Diplomacy in Anthropocenic Waters”.

Una Chaudhuri explicitly argues in her article that even though our anthropocentrism is obstructing us from building that interspecies relation, our “deep-rooted” and “nature-affirming” outlook must enforce us to connect with the “earthly realities”. This argument may be supported by Roch Vandromme in making the sculpture, since he also intends to depict the close relationship between humans and camels, while creating these majestic camels essence. And moreover, Vandromme found the ‘connection to the earthly realities’ exceptionally significant, because this French artist visited Qatar, explored its enriched heritage, and discovered the strong bond of humans-camels; and thereby, this sculpture is till to date holds a very vital connotation that involves both the preservation of Qatar’s heritage as well as the exhibition of interspecies diplomacy.

Nonetheless, it is important to consider the consequences of the interspecies diplomacy that can harm both the humans and nonhumans species, such as the outbreak of zoonosis from animals to humans, or even the transmission of pathogens from humans to animals. That is why, there is really no any correct or true conventional way of establishing the relationship of human-nonhuman worlds. It is because even though different species rely on each other’s diplomacy, most of the times it is important that our respective natural habitats and ecosystems are valued and not disturbed. However, linking it back with the Vandromme’s work, it seems that his sculpture is in fact representing the camels in their truest natural state, the presence of two generations of camels portraying the continuation of the close relationship between humans and nonhumans, but most importantly, the title of this sculpture “On Their Way” vividly implies to how camels were indispensable to Qatar’s culture and they were indeed ‘on their way’ making people’s lives easier by providing all the necessities.

Bibliography:

  1. “Ocean-Oriented Ontologies: Performing Interspecies Diplomacy in Anthropocenic Waters.”  I Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities, edited by Ursula Heise. 2017.
  2. “Roch Vandromme » On Their Way (2013).” Accessed October 16, 2022. https://roch-vandromme.com/musee-national-du-qatar/?lang=en.
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Public Art in Qatar

“On Their Way” by Roch Vandromme

Roch Vandromme shaping the sculptures

The sculpture “On Their Way” was created by French artist Roch Vandromme and installed in 2013, outside the National Museum of Qatar in Doha. This is the magnificent sculpture of four dromedaries (one-hump Arabian camels): two mature standing at the back and two calves at the front. The material used for sculpting the camels is bronze. Bronze could be motley, from being originally gold or light brown and changing to a completely different color, as a result of patina on the surface achieved through oxidation. That’s why the “On their way” sculpture gives off a blue-green coating when it’s under shade and dark brown when it’s under open sunlight. The installation depicts the dynamic and close relationship between humans and camels.

Vandromme is known for his “snapshotting of animals at peace in their natural state and giving them life in bronze sculptures”. The close bond between camels and desert people inspired Vandromme to visit Qatar in 2009, witness the relationship, and obtain inspiration to produce the sculpture later in 2013. Indeed, camels played an integral role in Qatar’s long history and its nomadic lifestyle in the past. Roch’s sculpture embodies the appreciation and embracement of the progressive and dynamic relationship between humans and camels. Two mature calves at the back represent the shared human-camel history and two calves at the front celebrate the continuation of the relationship in present and in the future. In this blog post, I argue that assigning the importance of symbols that emerged from humans and translating them to camels would be wrong. For that, I am going to rely on Eduardo Kohn’s How Forests Think and such concepts as anthropocentric narcissism and logic of forms.

The video presented by Qatar Museum “On their way”

Kohn in his book talks about the community of people, the Runa, and their coexistence with the forest. The sculpture represents the camels and the life they shared with desert nomads in Qatar. The common ground of both human and non-human lives existing in the same ecological niche makes the comparison relevant to a certain extent. Kohn argued that anthropocentric narcissism is embedded in our desires to attach morality shaped by human politics to morality in the nonhuman world. He states, “in the hopeful politics we seek to cultivate, we privilege heterarchy over hierarchy, the rhizomatic…we celebrate the fact such horizontal processes…can be found in the nonhuman living world”. He disagrees with this implication of morality and emphasizes that human morality can’t be translated to animals, especially while judging the equality between human and non-human living forms. In this sense, the sculpture “On their way” needs careful expertise: expecting camels to appreciate the human-camel friendship the same way humans tend to do it might be inaccurate as camels could view this political association in a completely different manner.

Another obstacle in making the translation of the human-camel relationship valuable both for humans and camels is the differences in the minds and forms of thinking. Kohn argued that the logic of form determines the logic of living thoughts and wondered what would happen to thought if it was free from intention. Of course, it is difficult to get inside the form, get inside the camel’s mind and see the sculpture from its point of view and track the camel’s thoughts and the sense it makes out of perceiving the sculpture. So, it means that a lack of understanding and evidence of how different living forms form associations in their minds leads to the conclusion that the sculpture, for now, is made for us and for our own appreciation.

Kohn, Eduardo. How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Univ of California Press, 2013.

Vandromme, Roch. “On their way (2013) at National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) Architect Jean Nouvel”.  Roch Vandromme. October 12, 2022,  https://roch-vandromme.com/musee-national-du-qatar/?lang=en. 

Video showing “On their way” sculpture published by Qatar Museums: https://youtu.be/FYy0YsitrKQ

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Public Art in Qatar

Gates to the Sea- Qatar’s Very Own Time Portal

Fifty years ago, one could not have anticipated a small, volatile economy such as Qatar’s, which was fueled solely on the basis of pearl diving, to transform into one of the world’s largest booming economies within the span of a few decades. Pearl diving was the principal source of prosperity for Qatar’s economy during the country’s pre-oil/industrial phase, with the vast majority of the citizenry being employed within the sector. However, as a result of the discovery of oil and natural gas reserves, the profession saw a significant decline as primary and secondary occupations took over the economy.

Simone Fattal’s Gates to the Sea art installation serves as an accurate reflection of the radical changes in Qatar’s past and present economic milieu. The rectangular shape of the sculpture conveys a time portal which Qatar traversed in order to bolster its economy to such a great extent in a matter of decades. On the sculpture itself are depictions of boats and marine life, which serve as a reminder that Qatar’s history is inextricably linked to the sea, and accentuates the inseparable relationship between both its people and the nature that surrounds them.

However, parallel to the increase in economic activity and rapid development of the state, this relationship with nature has been getting weaker due to the nation’s strengthening ties with petroculture. The article After Oil demonstrates several exemplifications of this regard and defines the concept of ‘petroculture’ as a term used to “emphasise the ways in which post-industrial society today is an oil society through and through.” (Petrocultures Research Group 9) From being so heavily reliant on the sea as a source of survival and possessing such a strong bond with nature, Qatar’s economy has transitioned too far beyond its roots and identity and has begun worshipping oil and natural gas. Albeit the positive changes, the strong and prevalent ties the country and its people had with the sea have largely deteriorated as a result of the mass industrialization of the state. The sea has traditionally served as a means of subsistence for Qataris for a long period of time, but since the discovery (and exploitative usage) of oil, the people have, in a way, betrayed nature. After utilising and exploiting the sea, the economy now has moved on to utilising and exploiting yet another one of nature’s commodities. This personified state of nature enables one to comprehend the extent to which we have destroyed our relationship with nature, despite the fact that it has aided human survival for millennia.

The text also deems human beings as “petroculture”. This expression is arguably ideal for articulating the modern societal standard of living, with its dependency on oil, and how these standards shape human values. With this regard, Qatari, alongside all human values, have chosen materialistic and capitalist possessions over our relationship with nature, and continue to allow them to exploit us. Hence, in this way, humans are also being treated as an extractive resource, and so one can agree with the statement that “we are a petroculture”. However, one should stay aware of the ‘we’ in this regard as the hierarchical structure present in society does not exploit everyone on the same grounds. 

Therefore, Qatar’s (as well as nearly every single country’s) economy needs to be ‘humbled’ because it has become so heavily reliant on oil and natural gas to support its future generations. It is in denial of the fact that it is only a matter of time until this scarce resource finally escapes human exploitation. In a sense, what at this very moment is helping us achieve the highest living standards and granting us luxury, will play a pivotal role toward our inevitable downfall. We are not aware of the fact that petroculture is a commodity that has been exploited to such an extent that it no longer possesses any natural traits and has practically become ‘human’ will betray us. Because we betrayed nature, we will suffer the repercussions by getting betrayed by petroculture. We were always bound to pay the price, sooner or later.

Sources:

Group, Petrocultures Research. “After Oil.”

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Public Art in Qatar Uncategorized

Mother Nature – The Force of Nature

“Let us not … flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us.” (Kunkel)

Benjamin Kunkel in his article ‘the Capitalocene’ anticipates that human beings have entered a new epoch – the capitalocene – denoted as the current period on Earth where industrial human activity has begun to have a significant negative impact on the planet’s ecology. We have established ourselves into being the most significant yet detrimental force fighting not alongside but against Mother Nature on the ecological battlefield because of our capitalistic nature that accompanies severe ecological repercussions. However, rather than generalising ‘human beings’ in this category, I believe ‘men’ have played a pivotal role in coercing the planet into an exploitative dimension since the mass industrialisation period which saw the introduction of capitalism.

Kunkel in his article sheds light onto the concept of eco marxism which deems capitalism to be the root cause of social injustice within the planet’s ecological crisis. As per Kunkel, “intellectual achievement of eco marxism was to adumbrate a holistic account of the way human beings simultaneously make natural history and their own social history; the political promise was to assert the ideal of a future society that would both abolish social class and preserve the environment”. (Kunkel) I would like to portray this concept through the lens of women of the working class as well as Mother Nature herself. Working class women are victims of mass exploitation within the capitalist system, and suffer a greater impact of this than upper class women, accentuating the division between the upper and working class. Additionally, the masculine/mechanical nature of the capitalocene predominantly being established by men, unsurprisingly deems women as the ‘weaker’ sex. The capitalism invoked gender division of labour within society obliges women to perform not only unpaid physical and emotional labour
at home, but also labour in the workplace which exploits them through menial wages.

The Force of Nature II art installation effectively illustrates Mother Nature’s struggle to safeguard the planet from this mass means of exploitation carried out by men and their mechanical nature against her and women in the collective society. The sculpture which can perhaps be portraying Mother Nature herself appears to be rapidly hurling the planet around in an attempt to maintain the Earth’s rotation and conditions. This can perhaps have a connection to the Marxist notion of unpaid labour women have to face in capitalist society. Although they are heavily exploited, their labour is a means of keeping society stable. Similarly, Mother Nature is exploited without receiving anything in exchange for her labour. She appears to be exerting all of her strength and vigour into saving the planet, but our extent of industrialization is deeming it difficult for her. The feminine nature of our ecosystems can be contrasted with the technological and masculine nature of capitalism. The fact that women are viewed as the inferior entity within society establishes the argument proposed by eco marxists and feminists that just like women, our ecosystems have also been vanquished within the capitalist society. Hence, even the universally deemed and accepted term ‘Mother Nature’, which on the surface espouses power, strength and life-giving force; actually reduces women and nature to a singular common denominator — a mother, pushing women and nature back into a solely reproductive and passive role. (Bari)

Sources:

Bari, Mavra. “Manipulating Mother Nature: The gendered antagonism of geoengineering |
Heinrich Böll Stiftung.” Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, 30 January 2020,
https://www.boell.de/en/2020/01/30/manipulating-mother-nature-gendered-antagonism-
geoengineering. Accessed 30 September 2022.
Kunkel, Benjamin. “The Capitalocene.”

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