Sharjah Art Foundation announced that the 2022 ASEAN Artists Residency Program (AARP) awardees Saiful Razman and Eunice Sanchez, both from Southeast Asia, have begun their month-long residency at the Foundation.
The AARP, co-organized by Sharjah Art Foundation and Maybank Foundation, was launched on January 10, 2022.
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The open call in November 2021 received more than 60 applications from young emerging artists based in 10 Southeast Asian nations.
The selection panel included Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, as well as notable representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Foundation and Maybank Foundation.
The two artists were selected based on the strength of their proposals and the potential of the residency to support the growth of their careers.
Sanchez, a visual artist and museum worker based in Manila, Philippines, works primarily with photography and alternative photographic processes. Her practice engages with themes relating to preservation and perception.
Razman, an artist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has explored various media, from pop-inspired collages to abstract oil paintings that play with color and pattern. His current series engages with everyday objects and disposable items.
Sanchez and Razman engaged with local communities across Sharjah as a way to extend their practice beyond their own region. They used the rooftop, courtyard and rooms of Sharjah Art Foundation’s heritage house Bait Obaid Al Shamsi in Arts Square as studio spaces in the development and production of their works.
“The launching of this special edition of the AARP shows that in spite of the pandemic, art continues to strive and relations are further forged in adversity. We are thankful for the staunch support of our like-minded partners Maybank Foundation and Sharjah Art Foundation in bringing forward the residency program to a global stage. The aim, in the upcoming years, is to grow the AARP’s reach and to include more emerging artists from all ASEAN member states,” said Lee Yoong Yoong, Director for Community Affairs, ASEAN Secretariat, and the Commissioner-General of ASEAN for Expo 2020 Dubai.
“We are delighted to have worked with ASEAN on this important initiative that builds on the Foundation’s mandate to foster local, regional and international development in contemporary art,” noted Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation.
“The residency encourages the awarded artists to experience and develop their practices by engaging with Sharjah’s local community through a range of activities including site visits, workshops, and informal opportunities for dialogue.”
As part of the residency, Sanchez and Razman will conduct workshops at Bait Obaid Al Shamsi in Arts Square, as a way to engage with the local community.
Razman’s workshop, titled ‘Temporary Place: An Experiment on Collaborative Collage,’ takes place on Saturday, February 5, 2022, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Participants in this collaborative collage-making workshop, conducted under the conceptual theme of ‘Imaginary Place,’ will explore collaging techniques to create an artwork within the specific theme, alongside a discussion around the theme and ideas.
The second workshop, titled ‘Light, Foliage and Flora: A Cyanotype Printing Workshop’, is conducted by Eunice Sanchez and will take place on Sunday, February 6, 2022, from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. In this workshop, participants will learn about the history of cyanotype printing and explore methods of cyanotype printing on paper while using foliage and flora as subjects.
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