Will the young generation of Yemeni artists survive to speak about art in Yemen?

Hend al-Nasiri responds to this and other challenges

Hend al-Nasiri is only in high school, but she has been interested in art and painting for the past few years. A representative of the younger generation of Yemeni artists, she depicts a very difficult future for artists to make a living in this country off of their work. Hend al-Nasiri is the last interviewee of this series that started with her aunt, well-known artist Amnah al-Nasiri. Two different generations: Amnah, who is among the “Russian Yemeni generation” that studied fine arts in the former Soviet Union, and Hind, who explains that in order to survive as an artist in Yemen, it is necessary to do the opposite and to study a different career. With this last interview, we close a long series that aimed to bring to the reader the lives, works, dreams and challenges of a talented artistic movement, that of Yemen.

Yemen Observer (YO): -How and when did you become interested in painting?
Hend al-Nasiri (HAN): -I started painting in 2006. Before that I didn’t have any particular interest in art. When I was a kid I used to draw, but I didn’t pay that much attention to it. As I grew up, I started to look at paintings and at art in general with more interest. I started to look up to my aunt, Amnah al-Nasiri, and I decided to give it a try. I then saw something inside myself and I decided to develop it and explore it.

 
YO: -Who inspired you the most during this process?
HAN: -My aunt, definitely my aunt.

YO: -How would you define your current style in painting?
HAN: -I started being inspired by my aunt’s work, and then I continued drawing following a free style and without any rules.

YO: -What is attractive to you from Amnah al-Nasiri’s work?
HAN: -The colors and the shapes.

YO: -What do you wish to express through your paintings?
HAN: -The environment, what surrounds me. I draw what comes to my head and sometimes what I draw can be read from many points of view. Anybody can see in my paintings completely different things. The point of view depends on the viewer, the person looking at the painting.

YO: -Is there a particular subject that you continuously try to reflect in your paintings?
HAN: -I always focus on the colors and I like to go to exhibitions and read about art in order to learn and find new ideas. I obtain ideas, and then I reproduce them in my own way.

YO: -As a young artist, how do you see this profession evolving in Yemen?HAN: -There are good young artists in Yemen, although the artistic scene is weak here. The problem is that although they are numerous and talented, they don’t have the perspective or the courage to draw different things; they always draw the same things. There isn’t much interest in abstract art, and artists here in Yemen stick to realism. Besides that, there is no one to direct them, someone to sort of guide them. Also, they don’t read, they don’t learn about other cultures, and they only draw what they can see, they don’t develop themselves in order to become better and more talented. These artists may draw well, their paintings may be good, strong, but the idea behind the paintings may be weak or simple. Like I said before, the problem is that they don’t read or learn from other cultures in order to do something different.

YO: -Is the reason of this lack of education in arts the fact that there are no art schools or art departments in Sana’a and almost in the entire country?
HAN: -Education in arts is very poor in Yemen. In Sana’a we can study art at one place, the University of Yemen, which is private. There are no departments, no colleges for art, no interest. Drawing in Yemen is not supported, artists are not supported and they have to learn on their own. My friends and I, we all know we have to study something different than art because in any case you cannot live off of art in this country. Art is thus like a hobby here.

YO: - How do you see yourself becoming an artist under these conditions?HAN: -I draw no matter what goes on outside. I draw my feelings and my emotions without caring for the rest. I don’t focus on specific subjects, like the Palestinian subject, which is the focus of many painters. I draw about many different things, about what comes to my mind, about what I feel. I have paintings that express war or peace, but I draw this in a way that remains open and is not closed to one specific country, city, or place. If I draw about peace, I want my drawing to be interpreted as world peace and not as peace for one specific place in the world. If I draw about sadness, I want it to be related to all kinds of sadness. That’s the idea behind my paintings.

YO: -Many young artists focus their work on the ‘Palestinian issue,’ why do they always go back to this subject?
HAN: -First, I think it is like the fashion of the moment. Second, people like this issue in general, and in addition everyone wants to go with the flow. They draw about this issue over and over because they don’t want to feel like an outcast and because it is a work everyone can understand. They also want to earn money out of it, because they know if they draw these kinds of things they are going to sell it. If they draw abstract paintings, they will not. They can draw about the Palestinian issue in an abstract way, but no one is going to understand it. This is why they all draw the same traditional things: the al-Aqsa mosque, a pigeon, dying children, blood, always the same images. Also teachers at school insist on us painting about this issue, it is all directed: children and people draw about this issue because they are controlled and pushed to draw about it. At school, teachers always ask us to draw about this issue and in this particular way, they don’t ask us to draw about peace for instance.

YO: -Why?
HAN: -I will give you an example: when I was in middle school they asked us to draw about the Palestinian issue, I thus drew a small window with small birds coming out of the window flying. As the birds reached the end of the painting they became bigger and bigger. When I showed the painting to my teacher she started laughing because she thought I didn’t understand what I had to do. Everybody drew Jerusalem and the old same things, and they all laughed at my painting and me. This is a problem in Yemen, they don’t support children and creativity at school, they want them to be like slaves and to tell them how to draw, direct their creativity. After showing my painting and having people laughing at me, they put my painting at the end, far from the other paintings and in a place where it could not be noticed.

YO: -Who buys or asks for these paintings on the ‘Palestinian issue’?
HAN: -People from the ministries and the government. It is all politics and they want to show the images in their offices so they look like they are doing something while they don’t do anything. The problem is that even if artists draw about the Palestinian issue in an abstract way, people will laugh at them, which is why artists draw things that anyone can understand easily.

YO: -Where do you think art in Yemen in going?
HAN: -There is a new artistic movement in Yemen happening now, inviting artists from the region and elsewhere, as we saw at the exhibition held at the House of Culture a month ago, where Chinese artists were also invited. This is the second year they have done this in Yemen and so it is something new. I hope these kinds of activities continue and grow bigger and bigger.

YO: -What are your future projects?
HAN: -In the future, I am not willing to study fine arts or anything related to art, but I will develop my work, my technique, and keep it as a hobby. I will continue reading and learning from other artists, but I don’t want to go towards fine art studies.

YO: -But didn’t you want to become an artist?
HAN: -Not all Yemeni artists or artists in general have studied fine arts in order to become professional artists. I see a lot of students that go outside the country to study fine arts to then come back here and have nothing. I don’t want this to happen to me.

YO: -If you want to be an artist, how can art remain a hobby in your life?
HAN:- First of all, it is not possible to study arts in Yemen. Secondly, as is the case of the rest of my friends, you cannot earn a life out of art. We need another degree to make a living. Even if I want to study art there is only one place, a college not a university, and private. If I do that, after I finish these studies, I would not be able to live off of this. This is the current situation for artists in Yemen, for us, the young generation.

* The portrait of Hend al-Nasiri was taken by photograph Jean-Baptiste Lopez. www.fotozean.com. The Yemen Observer thanks him for his kind collaboration on this page.

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