'In Real Time': The Ever-Evolving Exhibition

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by Dianne Apen-Sadler

'In Real Time': The Ever-Evolving Exhibition

23 Feb 2024

Marking a decade since its establishment in 2014, the NYUAD Art Gallery has just opened its spring exhibition, “In Real Time”. The ever-evolving space will see live performances as well as additional artworks created over the course of its run until June 9, 2024.

NYUAD Art Gallery

Found on the NYU Abu Dhabi campus on Saadiyat Island, the NYUAD Art Gallery was the first of its kind in the GCC when it opened its doors in November 2014. At its helm is Executive Director Maya Allison, who has overseen the development of the space since its creation.

According to Allison, the academic, non-collecting museum space focussed on three themes during its initial decade: The landscape, both built and natural, as a way of “really trying to connect” the gallery to its location; the Arab and Islamic worlds; and art and global dialogue.

The latest exhibition, “In Real Time”, sets the stage for the move into the next decade, which will fall into two main veins. The first will allow us to see the gallery doing exhibitions that map art histories that haven’t been written yet, while the second will ask why we are making exhibitions and what they are for.

Her time in the UAE has undoubtedly shaped her curatorial perspective, with Allison noting that with a student body that spans more than 115 countries, there is no shared set of references or cultural frameworks that one can speak to. She added, “One thing that really surprises me when I go back to the US or Europe is for me to realise how much I've changed over the 12 years since I’ve left. I can look at an artwork through my cultural framework and then whatever other cultural frameworks I have some fluency in, and that's it. And that awareness of my limitations, my inability to see, has been the biggest gift because if I had never left the US and I kept curating there, no matter how much I tried to see different perspectives, it's really not the same as being in the room with someone who's actually having that other perspective on the same work.”

In Real Time

While most of NYUAD Art Gallery’s exhibitions have around two years of planning behind them, work on “In Real Time” began in November 2023. Some works have been completed already, while others are simply a letter of intent, with the artwork to follow. The fact that the exhibition you experience will change based on the day or even hour you attend forces you to be in the present moment in that space.

Inspired by current events, Allison said, “It seemed really important right now for there to be a space for people to be able to just be present with each other. Doesn't have to be a celebration, doesn't have to be a distraction, doesn't have to be entertainment. Let's just take a minute and take a breath.”

Installation view: Cristiana de Marchi, The Echo of the Void | Lettere dal Carcere, 2021 (left), Black Square, 2022 (right). Hand-knitted wool stretched on board, dimensions variable. Photo: John Varghese

One of the first pieces you will encounter at “In Real Time” is Cristiana de Marchi’s “The Echo of the Void | Lettere dal Carcere” (2021) and “Black Square” (2022). The former is a hand-knitted white square spanning 200 x 200 cm, the smallest prison cell in official records, while the latter is a 98 x 98 cm black-knitted square on the floor, representing the smallest prison cell actually found. By standing next to “Black Square”, you are able to imagine yourself in those living quarters in a way you’d struggle to comprehend otherwise.

De Marchi shared with us her thoughts about the piece, saying, “When you see it unframed, it tends to absorb the light, so it becomes very abstract as a piece. But also, I mean, there is that sense of unfinishedness or the potentiality of reverting the process.”

Installation view: Chafa Ghaddar, Breathing Grounds, 2024. Fresco on wall, dimensions variable. Commissioned by the NYUAD Art Gallery. Photo: John Varghese

Lebanese artist Chafa Ghaddar has been commissioned to create “Breathing Grounds” (2024), a fresco piece on a wall within the gallery. The nature of the technique, in which you paint directly onto wet wall plaster, means that you have around a day to work on each section. Rather than blending the sections, Ghaddar’s piece, which was created over seven days, highlights the demarcation between areas. While fresco pieces can last centuries, after the exhibition is completed, “Breathing Grounds” will be removed and destroyed.

Ghaddar said, “That relationship between working something that is supposed to be permanent, and kind of trick it and force it to be completely ephemeral, to me, is an interesting tension and interesting negotiation of how we deal with surfaces, how we deal with making and how we deal with these forms of knowledge that are being generated. It also echoes the fragility of the time that we live in, but also of the time in general because we are living a very fast-paced life, and everything seems to be fleeting. Yet this is a technique that fixates pigment; it fixates an idea in a moment of time, but again, it's there to remind you that that also is going to go away.”

Other artists taking part in the exhibition currently include Moza Almatrooshi, Rana Begum, Julie Becton Gillum, Gözde İlkin, Kiori Kawai, Sol LeWitt, artist trio Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian, and Haleh Redjaian, although this will evolve… in real-time.

The exhibition is free to visit, with opening hours between 12 pm and 8 pm from Tuesday to Sunday. New artists and pieces will be announced through the NYUAD Art Gallery’s Instagram, @nyuadartgallery.

by Dianne Apen-Sadler