Exhibitions

The Abyss Stares Back

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

In our day-to-day, we encounter events and situations that in turn have an effect on our lives. The deeper one delves into these situations, the more he understands them. However, doing so causes a great influence on the individual by becoming a part of his accumulated life experiences. This influence appears in a later stage of life in multiple contexts and forms, thus highlighting the role of art and the artist in trying to shape a state of consciousness by observing the changes, asking questions, and interacting with reality in order to understand it further.

Saeed AlMadani represents his experience with diverse materials, practices, and forms of production by documenting a highly volatile phase of human history in which conflicts are manifested in all corners of the planet, a phase that requires heightened awareness and in turn causes an increased effect on the individual. 

Inspired by a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil: “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”, the artist speculates the ability of art to look back at the viewer.

In this exhibition, Saeed investigates the mutual influence of artwork and artist on one another, together with his awareness of world issues, and the ongoing changes in its various sectors. The artist represents his ideas through a variety of mediums such as printmaking, photography, numerology and performing arts.