The Imperceptible Weight Of Memory:Mohammed Sami @ Camden Arts Centre.

Baghdad artist Mohammed Sami isn't an artist that shouts. He is an artist that whispers. His show, The Point O, at Camden Arts Centre is not a large one and none of the works make a political point or feature a single human figure. They're not abstract though. Instead they show humanity in its absence. They show the spaces where once there were humans but now there are not.

 

One Thousand and One Nights (2022)

Bearing in mind that Sami comes from war ravaged Iraq, that could be said to be political in itself. Alternatively you could claim Sami as an heir to Edward Hopper. Particularly works like Hopper's 1963 Sun In An Empty Room which shows walls, shadows, and a window - but no actual person. Not even a lonely looking one.

Sami asks us to imagine what may have taken place in the settings of his paintings. Depending on how feverish our imagination is that can be either hellish or rather pleasant. The curators of the exhibition see Sami as an artist that asks questions about memory, about our memories and how reliable they are. What happened in front of that wallpaper? Who led on those mattresses and why?

Weeping Walls III (2022)

Ten Siblings (2021)

The title, Ten Siblings, at least gives us a clue. But what became of those siblings? Did they sleep comfortably in those beds? Were they taken from those beds? Why is the Father Figure in such disarray? Why does the Sand Storm remind me of Richard Diebenkorn? Why does someone, some unspecified person, wear plain black t-shirts every single day? Who even is Ashura? Is The Point O, the piece that gives the show its title, a view from an aeroplane window? If so, where is the aeroplane going? Is it escaping Iraq? Or is someone going on holiday?

Father Figure I (2019)

Sand Storm (2022)

Every Day is Ashura II (2020)

The Point O (2022)

Sami's is an art of questions, not an art of answers. Though some of the work does seem to directly address issues of both Iraq's bloody past and its present. An 'Electric Chair', a 'Refugee Camp', and a 'Parliament Room' where the backs of all the seats look like a row of gravestones.

There's a 'Meditation Room' and a 'Praying Room' too - and there's also, somewhat chillingly, a 'Study of Guts'. One of the very last paintings you see is Ashfall I in which ash falls from the sky on to a small Iraqi town and, presumably, its unseen citizens. Sami doesn't make political points. He trusts you to make your own.

Meditation Room (2022)

Electric Chair (2019-20)

The Praying Room (2021)

Electric Issues (2022)

Refugee Camp (2022)

The Weeping Lines (2022)

The Parliament Room (2022)

Day 1 (2022)

Study Of Guts (2022)

Ashfall I (2022)