Metaphor

.hidden { font-size: 0.00001px; } Metaphor by Saher Nassar Art Exhibition Metaphor Saher NassarLocation: Dubai In his first solo exhibition titled Metaphor, Saher Nassar reflects the spirit of a mutineer or a revolutionist. He rebels against dominant metaphors, established symbols, and the power of authority. Through four series of artworks, he focuses on the theme of breaking metaphors resisting all sorts of rules, expectations, or norms, and questioning all sorts of representations of establishment and authority. He presents a different body of works with a range of materials and styles as he uses a mixture of abstract paintings, collage, drawings, and photographs in addition to ready-made objects. In one series, he places five packs of cigarettes in the middle of five different archival images of war that took place in five different countries around the world. The message on the five packs reads: Smoking Kills in five different languages connected to the five different geographies where the photos were taken. The series stresses on two layers of dangerous threats to humanity: war and smoking. Nevertheless, the third layer that he is trying to convey can be read between the lines; it’s the lethal combination between capitalism and politics where the politics of war paves the way for Western multinational conglomerates to dominate the economies of poorer countries selling products that also kill. In Network Nassar’s works take the form of abstract art through the geometric colorful stripes that occupy the canvas. In the middle of each work, he adds an actual blood slide sample. The stripes are meant to reflect the variety of data that blood samples hold, representing “one’s behavior and their likes and dislikes, and what makes them who they are”. So even though “blood“ can unite a group of people metaphorically, the details tell a different story. In this sense, Nassar calls against tribal partisanship and ethnocentrism and looks at individuals for who they are. In Kill The Metaphor, he presents a series of mixed media artworks exploring “the myth of power and the power of myth” in different ways. He explains the metaphor as “a tool that’s meant to help us understand phenomena and make sense of the world around us. However, it could be deceitful and could prevent us from seeing the truth.” Nassar’s watchfully chosen words and images are an attempt to expose objects or actions that we think mean something while they reinforce the authority of power over people and encourage narrow-mindedness. Killing the metaphor is ridiculing and exposing what lies beyond the surface and encourages accepting other opinions, beliefs, and behaviors, different from one’s own and the rejection of the domination of the power of authority.

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