The “Rhizomes” exhibition featuring art pieces depicting pain and the effects of war at Art Gallery.
DOHA: Media Chapter in Qatar University’s Alumni Association creates the art exhibition entitled “Rhizomes,” which showcases a compilation of art by artist Amna Abdulkarim, a graduate of QU who is currently working as a Media Relations Specialist at QU.
The focus of the gallery is the depiction of war and its after-effects.
The exhibition was officially opened by Dr. Darwish Al-Emadi, QU’s Chief Strategy & Development Officer; Mohamed Al-Mohannadi, Director of Outreach and Engagement; Nasser Al-Marri, Director of Communications & Public Relations; Dr. Ahmed Al Emadi, Dean of the College of Education and the Qatari cartoonist Abdulaziz Sadeq.
The exhibition was notably attended by a number of QU alumni, staff and faculty, as well as guests from outside the university, including a handful of Qatari artists, a delegation from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and exchange students from Korean universities.
The art exhibition comprised of 17 pieces that depict pain of the contemporary human being and the effects of war, but also how hope and love emerge from this destruction. The artist, Amna, used a number of techniques to carry out her work including lead, ink, and metallic watercolor.
Commenting on her work and the name “Rhizomes” Amna says, “This label emerged from my belief that roots are always able to connect what, to us on the surface, seems divided. I was looking for my roots and I found them intertwined deep in pain. For me, that was the pain of war, although I did not experience it first-hand because I do not live in my country Syria, I lived it through my heart.”
She added: “ I thought I was spared the harms of war, but when I was drawing, I looked closer and saw the wounds in my paintings, which looked like explosions. I realize now that geography can be an illusion, proximity is not necessarily measured by distance.”
