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Lot Essay
Even the Shade Does not Belong to Them (2018) belongs to a series in which Mohammed Kazem turns his attention to migrant workers, whose presence forms an important part of the rapidly changing urban landscape of the UAE. Based on photographs taken by the artist, the painting initially appears almost engulfed by darkness. Figures and fragments of their surroundings emerge only gradually through layers of acrylic and ink, as though viewed through smoke, shadow or a darkened pane of glass. The image is deliberately difficult to read: bodies, gestures and architectural details hover between visibility and disappearance. This sense of partial visibility is central to the work.
Kazem draws attention to people who are physically present within the city, yet whose individual presence can easily recede into the larger rhythms of urban life. The workers depicted form part of the extensive workforce involved in the construction and development of the contemporary urban environment. The title introduces a more poetic dimension to this relationship between people and place. Even shade — one of the most basic forms of relief from the intense heat — becomes a metaphor for access, comfort and belonging. The work therefore moves between observation and absence, inviting reflection on how we look at the people and spaces that shape the city around us.
The darkened surface also complicates the act of looking. Rather than offering the viewer a clear documentary image, Kazem makes visibility something that must be negotiated. The figures become perceptible only through sustained attention, encouraging the viewer to look beyond an immediate impression and notice what might otherwise remain at the edges of the image. In this sense, the work is not simply a depiction of work and urban life, but an exploration of visibility itself: of presence, perception and the act of looking more closely.
First exhibited as part of A Prime Activity at Gallery Isabelle in Dubai in 2018, the work was subsequently presented at the 16th Lyon Biennale, manifesto of fragility – un monde d’une promesse infinie, in 2022. There, its exploration of visibility, human presence and the changing urban environment resonated with the Biennale’s broader engagement with vulnerability and human perseverance.
Born in 1969 in Dubai, Mohammed Kazem is an Emirati conceptual and multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, photography, video, performance and installation. Acknowledged as one of the ‘Five’, an informal group of artists at the vanguard of conceptual and interdisciplinary art practice in the UAE, alongside Hassan Sharif, Abdullah Al Saadi, Hussain Sharif and Abdul Qader Al Raes, Kazem emerged as an important figure in the development of contemporary art in the country. He holds an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and represented the UAE at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.
His recent international exhibitions include the 16th Lyon Biennale (2022), and the Yinchuan Biennale and Honolulu Biennial (2016). His work is held in collections including the British Museum, London; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and New York; Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Shanghai and Koç Foundation, Istanbul.
Kazem draws attention to people who are physically present within the city, yet whose individual presence can easily recede into the larger rhythms of urban life. The workers depicted form part of the extensive workforce involved in the construction and development of the contemporary urban environment. The title introduces a more poetic dimension to this relationship between people and place. Even shade — one of the most basic forms of relief from the intense heat — becomes a metaphor for access, comfort and belonging. The work therefore moves between observation and absence, inviting reflection on how we look at the people and spaces that shape the city around us.
The darkened surface also complicates the act of looking. Rather than offering the viewer a clear documentary image, Kazem makes visibility something that must be negotiated. The figures become perceptible only through sustained attention, encouraging the viewer to look beyond an immediate impression and notice what might otherwise remain at the edges of the image. In this sense, the work is not simply a depiction of work and urban life, but an exploration of visibility itself: of presence, perception and the act of looking more closely.
First exhibited as part of A Prime Activity at Gallery Isabelle in Dubai in 2018, the work was subsequently presented at the 16th Lyon Biennale, manifesto of fragility – un monde d’une promesse infinie, in 2022. There, its exploration of visibility, human presence and the changing urban environment resonated with the Biennale’s broader engagement with vulnerability and human perseverance.
Born in 1969 in Dubai, Mohammed Kazem is an Emirati conceptual and multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, photography, video, performance and installation. Acknowledged as one of the ‘Five’, an informal group of artists at the vanguard of conceptual and interdisciplinary art practice in the UAE, alongside Hassan Sharif, Abdullah Al Saadi, Hussain Sharif and Abdul Qader Al Raes, Kazem emerged as an important figure in the development of contemporary art in the country. He holds an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and represented the UAE at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.
His recent international exhibitions include the 16th Lyon Biennale (2022), and the Yinchuan Biennale and Honolulu Biennial (2016). His work is held in collections including the British Museum, London; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and New York; Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Shanghai and Koç Foundation, Istanbul.