The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

HASSAN SHARIF Iran/UAE 1951–2016 Cardboard and Rug 2005 Cardboard, cloth, strips of rug and glue / Installed dimensions variable / Courtesy: Estate of Hassan Sharif and Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai / Image courtesy: Estate of Hassan Sharif; Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai; Alexander Gray Associates, New York; gb agency, Paris / © Estate of Hassan Sharif By the early 1970s, Chabet had begun to experiment with large-scale serial installations, which broke away from rigid formalism and incorporated materials with local significance (mangrove logs and plywood). Commenting on housing, shelter and trade — he had initially trained as an architect — and expanding the language of Modernism to incorporate history, memory and the everyday, these works are regarded as his signature pieces. While his art was used to promote an international Modernism, Chabet had a resolutely local presence. He curated many of the early, influential avant- garde exhibitions at CCP in the early 1970s, and he is credited with the development of important alternative art spaces and for mentoring young artists. Despite not being known widely outside South-East Asia, curator and artist Ringo Bunoan has stated: ‘It is impossible to discuss Philippine contemporary art without beginning with Roberto Chabet’. 7 Hassan Sharif’s conceptual practice developed at a similar juncture of nation-building. In 1971, Dubai became part of the newly established sovereign nation, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With the discovery of oil in 1966, the passage to economic affluence and newly proclaimed sovereignty were almost simultaneous. With increasing wealth came a surplus of imported goods symbolising mass production, which began to flood the traditional, market-based economy. Sharif is perhaps best known for his ‘Objects’ series, assemblages of discarded articles or relics, and commonplace, readymade materials that were cut, bound, tied or woven together with cloth, rope or wire to form floor-based mounds or cascading wall pieces. One of his earliest sculptural works was exhibited outside Sharjah’s Souk Al-Markazi (Central Market), making clear his comment on the changing nature of society in the UAE in the post-independence era. 8