How do we navigate finding and reinterpreting our identity within cross cultural contexts and interdisciplinary techniques? Farah Behbehani is a Kuwaiti visual artist and designer who explores this within traditional Islamic and historical elements found across literature, calligraphy and local history and customs. In what ways can we activate the past within the present, and how can this call for bridging cultural and inter-generational divides?
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Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1981, Farah K. Behbehani is a Kuwaiti artist and designer. She received a Masters of Arts in Communication Design with distinction from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London, in 2007. Farah published her rst book, ‘ e Conference of the Birds’ ( ames & Hudson, London, 2009), based on Farid Ud-Din Attar’s 12th century Su allegorical poem. Illustrating Attar’s poetry with Jali Diwani calligraphy, she created a design system to enable non-Arabic readers to comprehend the meaning and uency of the calligraphic forms, providing greater insight into the intrica cies of Arabic script. Her work aspires to shed light on her rich cultural heritage, creating a bridge between East and West.
Farah’s work focuses on the Arabic letter, continuously investigating its layered meanings and exploring the boundaries of its physical form. Her pieces re ect her desire and passion to rediscover and employ tradition al Islamic art practice, creating reinterpretations in contemporary form. She has explored a variety of mediums, moving from paper and canvas to weaving and beading, as well as large-scale installations in metal and wood.
Farah has had several solo exhibitions in her native Kuwait as well as participating in numerous shows internationally, including: ‘I Love You, Urgently’, 21,39 Jeddah Art Week, Jeddah (2020); Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Exhibition, Manama (2020); Cairo Biennale, Cairo (2019); ‘Drawing from our Culture’, ITHRA - e King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Dhahran (2018); ‘Bab Jeddah’, Art Pur Gallery, Riyadh (2016); ‘Stages of Ascent’, Contemporary Art Platform (CAP), Kuwait (2014); ‘Word and Illumination’ in cooperation with the British Museum, Madinah Al Munawwarah (2014); ‘Pen to Paper’ Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2013); ‘ e Future of Tradition - e Tradition of Future’, Haus Der Kunst, Munich (2010); ‘Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World Festival’, Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. (2009). She is represented by Athr gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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As part of Warehouse421 Conversations, "Whistle While You Work" is a series of discussions led by Suzy Sikorski of MidEast Art, dedicated to humanizing the artist and embracing the diverse interdisciplinary activities, thoughts, and frame of minds that have been birthed or accelerated during this time in the pandemic.
Faced with a heightened sense of awareness of their emotional and technical functions during the quarantine, artists and creatives from across the GCC share their newfound ideas, paying attention to their mental and physical processes, as they channel this in 1) daily habits 2)movement/dance/play 3) fantasy/myth-making/childhood memories 4) identity (sense of place, and collective and individual consciousness).
Suzy Sikorski is an art researcher in Dubai running Mid East Art, a digital storytelling platform covering modern art analysis and contemporary practices. The platform’s overarching emphasis seeks not only to contextualize the contemporary within regional modern art history, but also in bridging both Western and Middle Eastern audiences and thinking critically within global art historical discourse.