Salah Elmur "Fragrances of the Forest and Photos" Exhibition
 "Fragrances of the Forest and Photos" an exhibition by Sudanese artist Salah Elmur, at the Sharjah Art Museum, runs from February 28 to June 2, 2018. This exhibition is a great introduction for people who did not see Elmur’s paintings before. As well as a pleasant, update for those familiar with his artwork. Let us not forget that he is one of the artists in the museum's permanent collection, with four of his paintings available year-round at the museum. He is an avid observer, with the imagination of a child, and the tools of an aptitude artist and a storyteller. Memories, people, plants, and animals grace his paintings as if at a moment in time everything stopped to pose for the artist! In almost all his paintings, people are posing and looking back at him, as if engaged in conversation with the artist. The exhibition is divided into four sections, “The Forest; Fragrances; Paintings from different stages; and Kamal Studio”. Elmur expressed his keen love for old things, photographs, antics, and old books. Putting that into consideration while looking at the paintings, and what they convey, reflect, or manifest. One might conclude that most of his paintings ponder upon memories. Which is in a way protesting the present, not reliving the past. At the same time, maybe it is his way of recording and saving these memories from vanishing and disappearing from our collective memory. It is not a realistic record, but it is more like an emotional and very intimate record of his feelings, and visual experiences since childhood.  The Red Forest, Salah Elmur, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 140 x 140 cm Roubi L' Roubi Collection  Embryo Perfume, Salah Elmur, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 cm, collection of the artist Elmur’s paintings reflect his graphic design background. Thinking of how diligently detailed his paintings are, almost of an illustrative quality, staged compositions, and his use of hidden brush strokes. Would like to argue that, all contributed to the way he garnered three different but connected visual paths together in one canvas; photography, illustration, and painting. A perfect example could be his series of paintings inspired by his collection of old fragrance labels. He painted the labels for real and imagined fragrances, like his “fragrance of an embryo” for example, which is a painting with an image of an embryo, in an elongated shimmering yellow hexagon shape; the pattern of orange and dark blue rhombus shapes fill the background with the name of the fragrance written on the painting. The artist was inspired by photos tokes of embryos in glass containers filled with formaldehyde, at the Museum Vrolik Academic Medical Center in the Netherlands.  The angry Singer, Salah Elmur, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm , collection of the artist Salah Elmur’s stippling, glazing, stencils, and overlapping techniques, with layers of colors, light up his paintings and give a mysterious aura. Some figures appear in transparent cubes, so transparent we cannot see but the edges of the cubes are outlined with one color. In some paintings, the cubes are in different colors. The figures appear sort of, in their own world, they can see the world around them, and the world can see them, but seems to have limited access to the outside world; which reminds me of terrariums as self-sufficient environments. In a more thought-provoking manner, every figure, rather facing life alone, as we come alone and depart alone!  Replica of "Kamal Studio", Salah Elmur, 2018 Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE  The Identity Card 3, Salah Elmur, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 115 x 55 cm, collection of the artist In his series of paintings called “ID card”. Elmur said stimulated by photos taken by his father, Kamal Elmur, who owned a photography studio in the 1960s Khartoum. He painted a group of ten same-size paintings on narrow rectangular canvas with broad wooden frames, with a portrait in the upper part of the painting, and geometrical shapes in the background and lower part. Every portrait is unique, reflecting every sitter’s temperament, as well as the patterns and background color asserting their disposition, some have calm colors others have hot and busy background patterns. The geometrical patterns in the lower part of the painting as the artist explained represent the information about the ID owner. Elmur, maneuvering an art scene stretched through different times and different geographies. He converses with a rich history of images and sights, vibrant colors, and diverse cultures of, Sudan, Africa, and the world at large, all are present in his work. In some paintings, it is obvious; in others is more settled, or appears in subtle manners. Iman Shaggag Sharjah, UAE March 2018 © All Rights Reserved. |
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