In his 99 Heads (Ibn Arabi), Marwan Kassab-Bachi – known simply as Marwan – renders an impression of each of the divine attributes across 99 artworks on paper. The series inspires awe for its sheer scale, but it is up close where the complexity behind each of the 99 pieces can be truly appreciated.
99 Heads (Ibn Arabi) is displayed across an entire wall at the Dalloul Art Foundation in Beirut. It is one of the opening works in a new exhibition that delves into the nuances of printmaking. While the foundation is indefinitely closed to the public for security reasons due to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it is accessible virtually through the institution's website.
The choice of the piece is fitting, considering the varied approaches the late Syrian artist took to create each print in the series.
“Marwan reflects the 99 attributes of God in faces that, if you look at them closely, don’t look like faces,” Wafa Roz, director of the Dalloul Art Foundation, says. “They look like topographical faces that take you to experiences or spaces or places that you have been in. This is exactly what we should understand, whether in the Islamic or Sufist ideologies, that the attributes of God are not adjectives or nouns. They are experiences that you face in life.”
The work is being shown as part of the Prints & Printmaking exhibition, which presents hundreds of other fine art prints of paper. That makes it one of the most unique and comprehensive exhibitions of its kind to take place in the region. While some of the best-known Arab artists are being represented, from Samia Halaby to Farid Belkahia, the star of the show is paper – a medium that has long been underappreciated by collectors and institutions alike.
Roz says she hopes that the exhibition can challenge preconceptions about works on paper and showcase the breadth of possibilities that printmaking provides.
“There is less appreciation for works on paper,” she says. “It's a medium that is sensitive and fragile. It's a medium that needs a very high level of conservation.” And yet, that does not mean that they should remain in vaults and drawers, away from the public eye.
“This art form, with its deep roots and diverse techniques, deserves to be celebrated and more deeply understood,” she says. “Through this exhibition, we hope to highlight the unique processes that go into printmaking, while shining a spotlight on the incredible talent of myriad Arab printmakers.”
For example, Walid Abu Shakra's prints present scenes that feature olive trees and cacti. The Palestinian artist's works also use a variety of printing methods, but while Marwan beckons landscapes as embodiments of the divine, Abu Shakra unpacks their geopolitical implications.
“He addresses landscapes, but in terms of borders, landscapes that depict identity,” Roz says. “Palestinian artists symbolise the cacti hedges as the delineation of borders, representative of the ownership of land and identity.”
Abu Shakra’s work is a prime example of how regional artists in the 20th century saw printmaking as a tool of social commentary. In a mesmerising series of silk screen prints, Jordanian artist Mona Saudi juxtaposes totemic figures alongside the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. The poems are depicted lilting Arabic currents alongside and underneath the abstract forms that seem to transcribe, in corporeal terms, the themes of exile and resistance often found in Darwish’s works.
Dia Al Azzawi, meanwhile, draws from another poet in his silk screen prints. Vibrant with bold colours and forms, The Will of Life series is titled after the poem by Tunisian writer Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi. The works were created in the early 1990s, decades before al-Shabbi’s poem found newfound attention as slogans and chants during the 2010 Tunisian revolution.
Printmaking as a tool of social and artistic expression still resonates in the region, as the exhibition makes clear. There are works by Ayman and Said Baalbaki that reflect on the brothers’ experiences during the Lebanese Civil War, but with different perspectives.
Ayman’s lithographs show the destruction that overtook Beirut as a result of the war, with black ink prints of houses in rubble and landscapes of debris. Said’s work, meanwhile, depicts personal upheavals. His lithographs show stacked suitcases, perhaps alluding to the constant need to relocate because of the conflict.
Some artists were more eager to use printmaking as a medium of visual experimentation. Palestinian artist Kamal Boullata, for instance, used silkscreens to experiment with Arabic letters and forms. Boullata was a central figure of the Hurufiyya Movement, which strove to further explore the abstractions prevalent in Islamic art.
Perhaps less abstract but still stunning are the works of Iraqi artist Suad Al Attar. Her Paradise in Green shows her mastery of colour etching on paper. Depicted with gold and deep greens, the scene emanates a mystical quality, especially given the lack of human presence in the landscape.
Several elements besides the artworks within Prints & Printmaking aim to expound on the potential and the importance of the art form. These include a section dedicated to archival materials, which include objects, such as a plate that Marwan used for 99 Heads (Ibn Arabi).
There is also an authentic 17th-century copy of The Book of Psalms, dubbed as the first book to be ever printed in the eastern part of the Ottoman Empire. The book was printed in 1610, in the monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya in Lebanon. It has been lent to the exhibition by la Bibliotheque Orientale de l’Universite Saint-Joseph, USJ.
Another aspect of the exhibition is the filmed interviews that are invaluable resources for printmaking techniques and history. The four films feature interviews with artists Mohammad Rawas, Samira Badran, Said Baalbaki and Zeina Badran. The interviews will be available on the Dalloul Art Foundation website.
Roz says it was imperative to visit the artists in person and in their studios for the interviews. “When you're talking about printmaking, you need that person to be face to face, in case they wanted to explain any technicalities,” she says. “For instance, Said Baalbaki offered us a three-hour interview, and we could hardly remove any of it, to the extent where we decided to segment it into three parts.
“In the first, he gives us a full explanation of the different types of printmaking and its history. In the second, he talks about his works and in the third part, Said gave us a walk-through of the 99 Heads by Marwan because he worked very closely with Marwan.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
The five pillars of Islam
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Background: Chemical Weapons
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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AT%20A%20GLANCE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EWindfall%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EAn%20%E2%80%9Cenergy%20profits%20levy%E2%80%9D%20to%20raise%20around%20%C2%A35bn%20in%20a%20year.%20The%20temporary%20one-off%20tax%20will%20hit%20oil%20and%20gas%20firms%20by%2025%20per%20cent%20on%20extraordinary%20profits.%20An%2080%20per%20cent%20investment%20allowance%20should%20calm%20Conservative%20nerves%20that%20the%20move%20will%20dent%20North%20Sea%20firms%E2%80%99%20investment%20to%20save%20them%2091p%20for%20every%20%C2%A31%20they%20spend.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EA%20universal%20grant%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EEnergy%20bills%20discount%2C%20which%20was%20effectively%20a%20%C2%A3200%20loan%2C%20has%20doubled%20to%20a%20%C2%A3400%20discount%20on%20bills%20for%20all%20households%20from%20October%20that%20will%20not%20need%20to%20be%20paid%20back.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETargeted%20measures%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMore%20than%20eight%20million%20of%20the%20lowest%20income%20households%20will%20receive%20a%20%C2%A3650%20one-off%20payment.%20It%20will%20apply%20to%20households%20on%20Universal%20Credit%2C%20Tax%20Credits%2C%20Pension%20Credit%20and%20legacy%20benefits.%0D%3Cbr%3ESeparate%20one-off%20payments%20of%20%C2%A3300%20will%20go%20to%20pensioners%20and%20%C2%A3150%20for%20those%20receiving%20disability%20benefits.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGrowdash%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJuly%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESean%20Trevaskis%20and%20Enver%20Sorkun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERestaurant%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Plus%20VC%2C%20Judah%20VC%2C%20TPN%20Investments%20and%20angel%20investors%2C%20including%20former%20Talabat%20chief%20executive%20Abdulhamid%20Alomar%2C%20and%20entrepreneur%20Zeid%20Husban%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
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The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
UAE v Zimbabwe A, 50 over series
Fixtures
Thursday, Nov 9 - 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 11 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Monday, Nov 13 – 2pm, Dubai International Stadium
Thursday, Nov 16 – 2pm, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 18 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The five pillars of Islam
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKinetic%207%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rick%20Parish%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clean%20cooking%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
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Day 3, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage, the Sri Lanka pace bowler, has had to play a lot of cricket to earn a shot at the top level. The 29-year-old debutant first played a first-class game 11 years ago. His first Test wicket was one to savour, bowling Pakistan opener Shan Masood through the gate. It set the rot in motion for Pakistan’s batting.
Stat of the day – 73 Haris Sohail took 73 balls to hit a boundary. Which is a peculiar quirk, given the aggressive intent he showed from the off. Pakistan’s batsmen were implored to attack Rangana Herath after their implosion against his left-arm spin in Abu Dhabi. Haris did his best to oblige, smacking the second ball he faced for a huge straight six.
The verdict One year ago, when Pakistan played their first day-night Test at this ground, they held a 222-run lead over West Indies on first innings. The away side still pushed their hosts relatively close on the final night. With the opposite almost exactly the case this time around, Pakistan still have to hope they can salvage a win from somewhere.
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Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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Teams
India (playing XI): Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami
South Africa (squad): Faf du Plessis (c), Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Zubayr Hamza, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Vernon Philander, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Rudi Second
Usain Bolt's time for the 100m at major championships
2008 Beijing Olympics 9.69 seconds
2009 Berlin World Championships 9.58
2011 Daegu World Championships Disqualified
2012 London Olympics 9.63
2013 Moscow World Championships 9.77
2015 Beijing World Championships 9.79
2016 Rio Olympics 9.81
2017 London World Championships 9.95
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