Although Thaier Helal is based in Sharjah, the Assi river and the Syrian soil of his homeland cling to his practice. Landmarks II, his current show in Alserkal Avenue’s Ayyam Gallery features large round and square sculptural paintings made from sand, glue, paint and fragments of found objects like bones and shells. These can be seen as geological layers, where nature and humanity have evolved over the aeons to tell stories of beauty, war, consumption, and decay. The artist does have his own inspirations and points of reference, but he wants visitors to evoke their own associations and memories of mountains, forests, deserts, bodies of water - planet earth at its rawest.
Helal is well known throughout the region and beyond for his abstract works, having exhibited in London and Seoul. He also mentors local artistic talents in his role as professor at the Fine Arts College in Sharjah. This show is a follow up to 2014's Ayyam outing in DIFC, and is part of the artist's Mountain and River series. The ugly staying power of man-made plastics is suggested in Illusion (2016). Bits of stubborn waste in blue and red gleam among the organic sands. I had just visited Richard Allenby-Pratt's incredible images of nature under siege in The Anthropocene at nearby Gulf Photo Plus, so I was finely tuned to Helal's work referencing human detritus and its indelible effects on the earth.
