7:00 PM: Opening of Shurooq Amin’s anticipated exhibition “It’s A Man’s World” in Al M Gallery, Kuwait
7:30 – 9:00 PM: The gallery was packed! People were stunned with Shurooq’s exotic paintings that bravely reveals the hidden side, unspoken stories of Arab -specifically- Kuwaiti men.
9:30 – 10:00 PM: Policemen came into the gallery because an anonymous called them claiming Shurooq’s artworks are “pornographic”!
10:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Shurooq & Al M Gallery owners were notified to either pulldown the paintings & suspend the exhibition, close the gallery, pay penalty or go to JAIL! Shurooq was updating us through twitter and my fellow blogger Abrar Al Shammari launched a campaign through her blog and Twitter to support Shurooq by adding #painttofreedom to all tweet related to the event.
1:00 AM: Shurooq tweeted that they all left the gallery & managed to let the policemen leave after pulling down some “provocative” paintings!
11:54 AM: I received the following email from Al M Gallery:
“Dear friends,
We would like to thank you for having participated the Opening “It’s a Man’s World” yesterday night.
Unfortunately, the exhibition of Shurooq Amin is temporarily suspended and for the moment we cannot release any information about the situation.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Please follow our updates on Twitter and Facebook.
Best regards
Al M Gallery”
It is a sad, unfortunate event for Kuwait & art crowd. By that hideous action, not only did they seize the freedom of Art, but also the freedom of expression, violating a right Kuwait Constitution gives to people! Censorship on Art means censorship on culture that builds nation’s identity & limiting one’s creativity!
But we should stop being negative about it & take action! This is a wake up call for everyone who believes in freedom of expression & opinion as a natural Human Right. Everyone who believes Art is limitless & a tool to point out society’s illness & perhaps cure it. Everyone who wants to a better future for us & the coming generation where we can talk, argue, discuss, paint, write & breath freely! I call on all believers to gather themselves & fight for our freedom!
A word for Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin… For the sake of people who believe in & support you, your fans, friends, family… Please keep it up! Thank you for bravely exhibiting the fearful truth about men in our society in Kuwait rather than any other genuine liberated country. But I ask you to exhibit the entire series again in any country so that people will know not only the truth about men, but also the truth about a false-liberated hypocrite society!
I couldn’t take pictures of the paintings per the gallery’s request to all media. But this is one of the artworks “The Kiss” archived in Al Maha when I interviewed Shurooq last July in Beirut. She participated with it in MENAS ART FAIR. Do you see anything “pornographic”?!
The Kiss from 'It's A Man's World" Series
Cheers
All I can say to some people is “If you don’t like the music, change the channel!”
God Bless Kuwait !
Some people enjoy destroying the TV instead of changing the channel!! Too sad
But MOI….it’s ok to have apps like flirtmaps……whoshere hi5 tagged etc free for download in Kuwait……oh what hypocrusy……
everything is ok as long as it is far from revealing any ugly truth about society!
i own 2 of Shurooq’s paintings….one of which is posted on this page and i am in shock that the authorities are too busy shutting down galleries rather than paying attention to the drug problems in Kuwait. the fact of the matter is that this is a reality here in Kuwait and they need to come to terms with it….way to go Shurooq! as always you will have a fan in me!
Maha… They are busy in creating a “blind,eye-folded,stupid,inside-a-box” person rather than a “libral-mind, well-educated, culutured” ones. I am sure the closure gave a boost for Shurooq to go forward, carry on her artistic influncing mission and be stronger! Thanks for passing by
WOW! I love this painting and would love to know more about the artist and the paintings. Lovely work and I am not sure about Kuwait or the art world there? I am a newbie to the “art gallery” vibe here in the Middle East, since I come from the east coast of the US. However, it does indeed sadden me to know that the arts and culture could be considered taboo in some way? That aside, I would love to learn more. Thanks for the wonderful write up. All the best!
Hello Nasrine, here is the website of the artist http://www.shurooqamin.com/ she is a multi-artist, poet and professor at university. She is one of my favorite artists in the middle east, very forward with strong daring approach considering she is a woman! The news was sad indeed but I believe it is a wake up call to all artists and fans to gather together and fight this new wave against liberal art and culture.
Thank you for passing by and glad you liked the blog