In Dubai, a peaceful enclave with a blossoming contemporary art scene, it’s all too easy to forget the steadily worsening conflict affecting so many civilians’ lives in nearby Syria. Syrian artist Tammam Azzam brought a hard dose of reality to Alserkal Avenue in his latest solo show, The Road, which ran at Ayyam Gallery from January 18 to March 3. Large- scale paintings of decimated Syrian neighborhoods from the Storeys series greeted jovial art night crowds. Unlike previous digital-centric shows, including Syria (2012) and I, The Syrian (2013), which employed splashes of saccharine colour to represent the potential for a positive future for Syria despite political upheaval, this series is somberly black and white.
The show is a reflection of daily life inside the country, where one family is displaced every 60 seconds by violence, forced to take what they can carry and run. “These are in black and white because it is just about two sides,” Azzam explained. “It’s not colourful. It doesn’t contain hope or happiness. It is about the present moment — not the past or the future.”
