Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Batool grew up in Kuwait and currently lives in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where she works at the Sharjah Art Foundation. She completed a four year BFA at the College of Fine Art and Design at the University of Sharjah and graduated in 2012.
Batool is not on Hiatus by choice, in fact, making art has proven a frustrating challenge after she graduated from university. However being officially on Hiatus, she hopes, will take the pressure of needing to make art off of her shoulders, allowing her to resume making it after the period of this residency is over.
Also given the fact that she works at the Sharjah Art Foundation, she often finds herself sarcastically nitpicking at artist statements, biographies and the general wording of art texts; what has been called International Art English (IAE). She also spends lots of time doing conceptual research for upcoming events, which surprisingly results in similar sarcastic deconstruction of texts by established philosophers that she would usually be fascinated by.
For the duration of this residency she proposes to compile all her notes on readings and texts as a series of scans and word documents or other means of entering text on the web page. She will also document her daily life on hiatus which would include the process of furnishing her flat, getting a drivers license, going to art events in Sharjah and Dubai and hopefully not making any art secretly.
One day before the start of March Meeting 2014, I met Farid (Rakun) at the office to say hi and get some formalities out of the way. During the few minutes we spoke I manage to condense my experience on RFAOH to one sentence that I paraphrase as accurately as I can; I can be okay with not making anything and still call myself an artist.
This is not to be confused with laziness (please). The anxiety of feeling obliged to make work was enough to drive me away from it, not unlike a stubborn child, but also, the art world’s [implied] obsession of producing a spectacle – even if not visual – factored into the equation. It blew my mind, and perhaps naively so, that there still needs to be a final entity to fund/produce/document/archive/perform/record/etc.
This remains an open question to me, and perhaps the closest of an answer to this issue, is the one reached by the organizers behind RFAOH when they decided to start the residency. I took the time at RFAOH to focus on none of that, hoping that by not searching for it, I’ll notice it sitting outside the doorstep. I can’t say I’ve succeeded too finitely (how ironic) but I have at least, identified my preferred way to work, of having many disconnected things simultaneously going until they all condense into ‘a practice’. Accordingly, going to class, work and anything else I do will factor into said practice; and parallel to that, I’m starting to work on a text-based project similar to my initial proposal for RFAOH which I did not carry out during the residency because it felt too much like… work. Also I was afraid of starting it within RFAOH then not being able to extrapolate from it after the end of the residency since nothing on RFAOH is to be considered art/work. However, I don’t intent to embark on this research with the same smirk on the face of the initial proposal to RFAOH, but rather with a genuine questioning approach that may or may not culminate into a resolute end.
I am also considering documenting said research on my own – now dormant – blog that I started some time back for this very reason, but never got to really take it on. It was also due to being at RFAOH that I came to be more comfortable with the idea- that of virtual space and internet content.
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Batool Mohammed’s 6 month on-hiatus residency ended on April 1, 2014. We thank Batool for her participation as our inaugural resident and for sharing great insights of her “post-graduation” hiatus. RFAOH sincerely wishes the best of luck for her post on-hiatus life, wherever it may lead, and hopes to hear from her time to time.
Click “Final Report” to read on her experience at RFAOH.
This day has been the fourth in a row during which I work dramatically long hours. However it was great to see Farid over skype… if only for about 30 seconds before we decided that the internet connection couldn’t sustain the video, and I cant wait to see him in person next week!
I just realised that it is very close to the end of my Hiatus period! and I feel like I have not been sharing what I’m doing enough.
To be fair, the last month’s entire focus has been work related, which will soon become the March Meeting, so I don’t really have much to share except to tell everyone to look forward to it and if you happen in be in Sharjah or the UAE then do come attend some of the talks!
I am dreading having to be the presenter for the March Meeting though, the thought of having to be on stage introducing speakers and panels while my face looks like the personification of death terrifies me. But I’ll probably just do it.
In other news, my mother was here for a week, and just flew out this afternoon, so I’ve been spending some time with her when I can, mostly arguing over our generational gap and trying to explain that a fork in the road is not synoymous with the utensil. She also couldn’t come to terms with the idea that not having to belong to a place is quit normal… and that took an unsuccessful 2 hours.
In other other news, I scratched my car, while in the parking, going really slowly. So now I’m car-less for a week while it gets repaired, because it takes the workshop three days to get insurance approval and another three to do the job.
And finaly, in other other other news, I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to proceed after the end of RFOAH… and have reached no concensus amoung my thoughts. RFOAH has been a very reassuring place, if virtual, and I’m trying to incorporate that sense of reassurance into whatever it is I move on to do, but that has proven very difficult since effective reassurance tends to always be external.
Please excuse my typos, and I still owe this page several scanned pages from my note book which I always forget to take to work.
Once again, it’s been a long time! I have only been back in Sharjah for a month (as my internet data package so nicely reminded me) but plenty has been going on, it feels a lot longer!
1) I finally got a car. A small, affordable-style car, but a car nonetheless. I haven’t received it yet, the dealers are supposed to call me later on in the week for me to go settle the registration fee and take the car. Until then, I’ve vowed not to take cabs for long distances, just to make it more rewarding (I have to take a cab to work).
2) My roommate arrives tonight! I tried to tidy up as much as I can, and hope that I don’t weird her out when she gets here. I’ve been sick (again) today, and very sniffly, and have no social energy at all. Blegh.
3) I’m starting a new book, which my friend and I have decided to read together and then discuss at regular intervals. This is not the kind of book I would usually pick up, but I think will be an interesting read.
Hello RFAOH,
I miss posting here, I’ve been stupidly busy with work, life, and things in general. I managed to compile all my MBA application documents and sent them in three days ago. I got my driving license yesterday after a test during which I was afraid I was going to fall asleep on the wheel because it was at 7.30 am. I’ve been doing crazy hours at work, as March nears the less empty evenings I’m going to have. I lost a good amount of weight after not eating out for the two weeks I was in Kuwait… being generously provided with mother-made food. I intend to start making my own food more often from now on. I’ve been doing lots of reading, and owe this page plenty of scan of notes.
Soundtrack of the week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMvezbP90Y&list=PL23210BDAD7B889EA
I wonder if anyone actually checks out the links.
Oh and I recieved my frist copy of C-magazine in the mail a few days ago. yay!
milena wrote on Jan 17:
Batool, you brave young girl,congratulations.
Matt wrote on Jan 10:
Congrats on the drivers licence Batool. I check the links (am a fan of Sigur Ros as well)
Batool wrote on Jan 7:
thanks Milena!
milena wrote on Dec 28:
Dear Batool, I hope you are well. Thank you for all iteresting issues and congratulatios for test results!
In SAF news: We have extended the deadline of the March Meeting open call to the 5th of January, so there is still time to apply.
In my news: I’m sick at home answering emails and sipping hot ginger lemonade. Tonight is the wedding party of a dear friend and ex professor, but I’m too sick to survive a ride to Abu Dhabi and party.
I shall try to take some time to read The Market. I’ve been procrastinating way too much around my readings lately and been sick pretty much all week.
I’m flying to Kuwait again for chistmas to see family, my brother is also flying in from Prague, I havent seen him in a while.
I will deviate from my currently uneventful life to post about the March Meeting 2014, which has pretty much been taking up most of my time anyway.
Its a really cool open call this year, so if you are interested in coming to Sharjah next March to attend and report on March Meeting, do give this a try… and if you know of anyone that would be interested, also please dissiminate accordingly.
http://www.sharjahart.org/march-meeting/march-meeting-2014/welcome
If you have any questions about this that would like to ask before applying, just go ahead and send them to the email on the application page, and I will be on the other side answering them.
TOEFL test: Passed: 118/120
MBA test: Passed: 14/45, 11/15, 7/10 (that first score is the math section, as predicted)
The easy part is over, now I have to write one of those cheesy “letter of interest” style things, with not-so-subtle sucking-up phrases. As you can gather… I’m thrilled.
anonymous wrote on Dec 13:
I see three squares (but they're pointed up) Congrats Batool!
Batool wrote on Dec 12:
Thanks everyone, yeah I so see the thumbs up hehehe... but only on my laptop for some reason :P
Karen wrote on Dec 10:
Congratulations!
farid wrote on Dec 10:
ðŸ‘ðŸ‘👠I'm testing emojis here. Sorry if they don't come out. It's triple thumbs.
shinobu wrote on Dec 9:
oh my goodness, congratulations!!! I'm SO excited about this!! What are we gonna do??
Dear Comrades,
It is a sad week. As you may or may not have noticed, this past Wednesday la Biennale di Venezia announced the curator of 2015’s 56th International Art Exhibition.
It is not Kanye West.
It is instead, Okwui Enwezor (http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/news/04-12.html).
Ixnay on the #BiennalYe.
Whilst we mourn this tragic news for contemporary culture, we can take some comfort the knowledge that whilst this announcement was being made, Kanye was talking about design and architecture with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist (a supporter of this very petition) and architect Jacques Herzog, within the context of Art Basel Miami Beach (http://m.complex.com/art-design/2013/12/kanye-west-jacques-herzog-design-dialogue-art-basel-miami-beach).
The dream lives on.
We fought a good fight, amassing 906 signatures before Wednesday’s announcement, and gaining support and mentions in titles including Dazed & Confused, DIS and Blouin Art Info and from figures such as The Guardian newspaper’s art critic Adrian Searle, MoMA’s Senior Curator of Architecture and Design Paola Antonelli, and Kim Kardashian (probably).
Who knows, 2015 may bring Mr West’s first participation in the Venice Biennale yet through an independent endeavour. The seed has been sown.
Will he take over San Servolo on a floating weaponised version of one of the mountains from his Yeezus tour’s stage set? Will an impromptu performance financed by the Fiorucci Art Trust see Yeezus crucified over the alter of Santa Maria della Salute by a grinning Bernard Arnault impersonator (later revealed to be John Bock)? Or will a stealth operation transform the Canadian into the Kanyedian Pavilion, catching La Biennale off guard and putting a long neglected patch of the Giardini back on the map?
#BiennalYe thanks you for your support.
This message was sent by BiennalYe using the Change.org system. You received this email because you signed a petition started by BiennalYe on Change.org: “La Biennale di Venezia: APPOINT KANYE WEST TO CURATE THE 2015 VENICE ART BIENNALE.” Change.org does not endorse contents of this message.
shinobu wrote on Mar 6:
SO amazing you guys are meeting in person - this is truly March Madness!!! We loooove it