PAPER BOATS
By Mohammed Al Shammarey
 
12 February to 10 March 2013

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  Mohammed Shammarey launches his latest exhibition ‘Paper Boats’ at Jacaranda Images with a multifaceted exhibition of prints, book art and video installation as part of the Institut Francais ‘Image Festival #3’.

  The reference to the paper boats extends beyond childhood games and dreams to the prevalent issue of immigration where boats were the earliest mode of transport for early immigrants from Europe and Africa to the USA either by choice or forced. The exhibition is somewhat biographical as Shammarey has himself immigrated to the USA to flee the ‘bleeding homeland’ of Iraq, a decision which leaves a ‘hollow feeling of deep uprooting’.

  This work is more than his own story though and alludes to the business of immigration involving those desperately escaping persecution and who travel in barely seaworthy vessels, often paying dearly for the risks associated with such a journey or those who profit from the immigration business of refugees, even extending to mail order brides.

  Shammarey has been known to hide behind satirical statements like ‘Artwork is some sort of game’ and in this exhibition he takes the concept of the game of a flimsy paper boat, destined for one trip down a stream, and reveals a complex array of ideas with far reaching consequences for those who play it.


 

 

Previous Exhibitions

RAFIK MAJZOUB - 'X RAY '

SINA ATA - 'MAMNOO3 FORBIDDEN '

MIKE V. DERDERIAN - 'CIRQUE DU HABALEENO '

GHASSAN GHAIB WITH SCULPTURES BY AHMED AL BAHRANI - 'HANINE (NOSTALGIA) '

CHARLOTTA SPARRE - 'ABCD – A DREAM OF FOUR CITIES '

MOHAMMED AL SHAMMAREY - 'WASAT AL BALAD / DOWNTOWN'

TARIQ DAJANI - 'SAQR'

AMMAR KHAMMASH - 'FOSSILS OF TIME & LIGHT'

KARIN MAYER & AHMED AL KHALIDI - 'URBAN EXCHANGE'

BADER MAHASNEH - 'EXPOSURES'

GHADEER SAEED - 'MEMORIES OF LOVE & WAR'

SALEH ABU SHINDI - 'VOCABULARY OF LINES AND COLOUR'

MONA SAUDI - 'SONG FOR THE EQUINOX'

BADER MAHASNEH - 'SCULPTING THE WATER'

TARIQ DAJANI -  'ABOVE WADI RUM'

HAKIM JAMAIN -  '30 DAYS IN LUXOR'

ABORIGINAL ART - ANCIENT ABSTRACTIONS

3 DIMENSIONS, 3 JORDANIAN ARTISTS

SHEREEN AUDI - 'EXPRESSIONS OF A FREE SOUL'

FLOODED LONDON – FIVE IMAGES OF THE FUTURE

Contemporary Australian Indigenous Prints and Paintings

ASIL Photographs of Arabian Horses by Tariq Dajani at Zara Centre Gallery

Didgeridoo … da..da