a visual journal of maldives

Blue, opening night, 12 March 2009 Photo Ahmed Zahid

Blue, opening night, 12 March 2009 Photo Ahmed Zahid

The second event of the 2009 exhibition season at the National Art Gallery was inaugurated Thursday evening, 12th March2009, by the Vice President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Maniku. Comprising of oils by Maldivian artist Samah Ahmed, the works exhibited are an ode to the artist’s childhood memories of the turquoise seas surrounding the Maldivian islands. However, the works are also more than this. According to the artist she is also attempting to provide a sense of escapism offered by the primarily western notion of ‘paradise’ and the desirer to be stranded on a desert island (perhaps exemplified by stories based on characters such as Robinson Crusoe). And yet, at the same time, she is opting for a more rarefied medium – in this case painting – as opposed to popular images offered by tourist brochures.

Samah Ahmed was born in the Maldives and was partly educated in the Maldives and the UK. In 2005 she completed her undergraduate studies in fine Art (Painting) from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London and since then she has been residing in the UK. The exhibition at the National Art Gallery, running from the 12^th of March until 9^th April 2009 is her first solo exhibition and is also the first time she is exhibiting in the Maldives.

Blue, opening night, 12 March 2009 Photo Ahmed Zahid

While this is Samah Ahmed’s first show in the Maldives, this is also the first time a serious artist has made the subject of the blue seas surrounding the Maldivian islands a major theme of a body of work sustained over years. Maldives is well known throughout the world for its natural beauty and often tourist brochures and souvenir postcards depict the inviting colors of these seas. Made famous worldwide by photographers such as Michael Friedel and Sakis Papadopoulos, Maldives remained the perfect image of paradise in the western imagination until events in the early years of the first decade of the 21st century - both technological advances and political developments - made it possible for local photographers to present the world with their own views of the country. And while Maldivians have long been informed of the threat of global warming and sea level rise, nothing much has been done by way of addressing the issue. And the tourist brochures that celebrated the clear blue lagoons and the natural beauty of the Maldives carefully avoided the problem of sea level rise except when it worked to increase the rarity value of the archipelago, with phrases such as ‘this might be the last chance to experience one of the wonders of the world before it disappears’.

Blue, opening night, 12 March 2009 Photo Ahmed Zahid

The exhibition ‘Blue’ celebrates the beauty of the Maldives, and especially the clear seas surrounding the islands as well as attempts to communicate the threats facing the Maldivian people. The artist statement in the exhibition catalogue reads, “I also touch upon on a more somber and serious reality of nature faced by the Maldives. Global warming is very real and a persistent geographic threat faced by all us Maldivians - would we exist in hundred years’ time? The lack of land and the absence of any living being in my paintings is a stark reminder that we do not have the answer to this burning question. Is the view on my canvas all that will be seen in reality in a hundred years time – I wonder.”

‘Blue’ by Samah Ahmed will run at the National Art Gallery, Maldives from 12 March 2009 to 11 April 2009. Gallery opening hours are 10AM to 4PM weekdays.