The solitary owl, which exists in the shadows and cares not to socialise even with its own kind, represents death in many cultures.
In The Blind Owl, a novel written by Sadegh Hedayat in 1937, the symbol takes on an even darker level. When the opening line talks of the “sores in life that, like a canker, gnaw at the soul in solitude and diminish it”, it is difficult to imagine it going anywhere else.
Yet, when Pouran Jinchi picked up the novel a few years ago, she decided to deconstruct it, turn it into visual art and focus on the spiritual message in the pessimistic plot, which is one of self-discovery.
“The book is a little cultish, and I grew up with it,” she says. “It was banned in Iran and parents said if you read it you would commit suicide — so, of course, immediately every teenager wanted to read it and I got my hands on a copy. At the time I think I was too young to understand what he was talking about but then, two or three years ago, I came across the book again and it brought back memories and nostalgia and I became very interested in it.”
Jinchi was fascinated, she says, by one particular line that reads: “I write only for the benefit of my shadow cast on the wall. I must introduce myself to it.”
It is repeated many times throughout the book, thus becoming a visual symbol.
In Jinchi’s solo exhibition, which opened last month in The Third Line in Dubai, all but two of the pieces are composed of only these words, in their original Farsi tongue.
“Repetition is a theme in this book, the author repeats the same imagery over and over again in different circumstances, so my show is a take on that,” explains Jinchi.
“My work is also very repetitive,” she adds. “There is something very poetic about repetition.”
Jinchi is an Iranian artist based in New York who is trained in calligraphy and usually explores the nature of words in both their meaning and form. For this show, also named The Blind Owl, Jinchi has used a variety of styles and materials to present and represent the shadow quote. She has used ink on paper for Black Painting and Pink Painting, in which the letters are painted over and over each other until all meaning is lost and only gaps of white space remain to beckon the viewer beyond the words.
In Untitled #3, she has compiled hand-cut copper letters into a sculptural wall hanging and in Untitled #1, she has dissected the letters into framed boxes to create puzzle-like grids that house the words.
But by far the strongest part of the exhibition is the central piece Untitled #2, where she has written out the entire book on 18 sheets of pink Plexiglas and laid them on top of each other like a book. On the wall behind are 94 sheets of paper, where she has again written the entire story but added only the dots that add punctuation to the Farsi. It is painstaking work but the overall effect is mesmerising. Suddenly the rhythm of the words is visible, as well as their beauty.
“My work always starts from a text or a book,” explains Jinchi. “Words are extremely powerful and sometimes people underestimate them. For me they are so amazing and I can’t get enough.”
But, given the fact that Hedayat committed suicide in a rented Paris apartment in 1951 and that he narrated the disintegrating mind of a mad man, why would Jinchi choose to give amplification to his voice?
“I identified with it, it brought me to who I was and who I am today and it spoke for me,” Jinchi says. “The symbols are opaque,” she continues. “I read one interpretation that said the reason he tries to introduce himself to his shadow is because he has no hope for his voice to be heard. Sometimes I also feel like I don’t have a voice, so I make art and I let art speak for me.
“This exhibition is about my experiences with the book and after they come to see it I’m hoping that people will go, pick up the book and read it and figure out things for themselves.”
• The Blind Owl runs until October 24 in The Third Line, Al Quoz, Dubai
aseaman@thenational.ae
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Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Juvenile arthritis
Along with doctors, families and teachers can help pick up cases of arthritis in children.
Most types of childhood arthritis are known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis. JIA causes pain and inflammation in one or more joints for at least six weeks.
Dr Betina Rogalski said "The younger the child the more difficult it into pick up the symptoms. If the child is small, it may just be a bit grumpy or pull its leg a way or not feel like walking,” she said.
According to The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in US, the most common symptoms of juvenile arthritis are joint swelling, pain, and stiffness that doesn’t go away. Usually it affects the knees, hands, and feet, and it’s worse in the morning or after a nap.
Limping in the morning because of a stiff knee, excessive clumsiness, having a high fever and skin rash are other symptoms. Children may also have swelling in lymph nodes in the neck and other parts of the body.
Arthritis in children can cause eye inflammation and growth problems and can cause bones and joints to grow unevenly.
In the UK, about 15,000 children and young people are affected by arthritis.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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