Eleven artists and designers have been shortlisted for the fourth edition of the V&A’s Jameel Prize, an international award that focuses on contemporary works inspired by Islamic tradition. The winner, to be announced on 7 June 2016, will receive £25,000.
The shortlist for the prize, which was launched in 2009, is: David Chalmers Alesworth, Rasheed Araeen, Lara Assouad, CANAN, Cevdet Erek, Sahand Hesamiyan, Lucia Koch, Ghulam Mohammad, Shahpour Pouyan, Wael Shawky and Bahia Shehab.
The biennial international touring exhibition will open on 8 June 2016 at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, the first time in the prize’s history that is has been launched outside the V&A and the UK.
The prize, which has architect Zaha Hadid as its patron, received over 280 nominations worldwide including from Afghanistan, Mali, Puerto Rico and Thailand. The selection panel comprises the potter Alan Caiger-Smith, 2013 Jameel Prize 3 winners Ece and Ayse Ege, curators Rose Issa and Hammad Nasar, and V&A director Martin Roth.
Among the shortlist, Wael Shawky exhibits the second film in his trilogy, Cabaret Crusades (pictured above), which explores and retells the historical narrative of the Crusades from an Arab perspective. Based on Amin Maalouf’s 1983 book, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, Shawky employs marionettes, drawings and objects in these animated portrayals of the horrors of war.
CANAN references the visual language of the Ottoman miniature to represent acts of resistance within present-day Turkey. Her artistic commentary on her home country and its history are influenced by her role as a leading defender of women’s rights. In Resistance on Istiklal Street (pictured above), CANAN takes inspiration from the works of Ottoman cartographers to depict the resistance that took place during Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park protests of 2013.
Graphic and type designer Lara Assouad exhibits Modular Arabic Alphabet (above), a graphic wall display of her contemporary typefaces. Dubai-based Assouad reworks ornate traditional script into contemporary geometric forms that convey the visual language and rules of proportion that guide this calligraphic tradition.
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