Ebtisam AbdulAziz
Work in the exhibition "Nafas"

In Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Ebtisam AbdulAziz photographed some 2,000 hands. She noted the name, date of birth, nationality, and activity of each person on data sheets alphabetically classified in 27 files. The piece was created during the two months before the opening of the 7th Sharjah Biennial where it was first presented. On the days of the opening, the artist photographed the hands of visitors, adding these images to her archive.

For this project, Ebtisam AbdulAziz approached her circle of friends and people on the street that she didn’t know; she visited umpteen offices, institutions, and social organizations in order to cover a broad spectrum of professions, social origins, age groups and nationalities (only some 15 – 20% of the Emirate inhabitants are citizens of the country). "I wanted to show the mark of time, work, and history on people’s hands, and create an archive that reflected the age and social differences of a portion of Sharjah’s population, highlighting in particular the differences between the old and the young, the healthy and the somewhat physically disabled, and people from higher social classes and the workmen who lead difficult lives and do extremely physical labor. Hands can reveal a great deal about a person’s history, and the mark of time’s passing seems registered on a hand forever."

When she began with this project in 2004, Ebtisam AbdulAziz inscribed in large letters the date of birth of the person on the photograph of the hand. "These numbers expressed the physiology and mentality of the human being through capturing the relationship between the body and time. Life is the energy we possess from birth, but our individual nature is what decides on how this energy is put to use."

In her large archive, these numbers now appear on the data sheet and are supplemented by other information. It is part of the concept that from the photographs and additional indications, the viewers can develop there own idea of the person to whom the hand on the photograph belongs and thereby actively interact with the piece. The work "sends out many signals like life and death, and the realization of death leads to enigmatic feelings concerning time." It demonstrates "the effects of time on human nature".

Text by the curators Pat Binder and Gerhard Haupt

(From the German: Helen Adkins)
The quotes are statements by the artist

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