Showing beauty in Decay and loss

Instagram: @mazoun_alghailani -

One might think, is it possible to change the whole scene of ugliness and distraction into a state of beauty? How could artists see the state of weakness, fading and decay as an aesthetic state, despite the lack of beauty and the fact that the self has reached a profound stage of pain? Contemporary artists are capturing scenes of abandonment, loss and decay through photography, painting and sculpture, creating pieces that are both haunting and beautiful.

The Art of Decay has come to change the whole prospective of beauty and ugliness, stressing that there is always beauty even in distraction and decay and in this process, the artist finds a sensual aesthetic touch and a high humanitarian value. The art of Decay artwork is produced after a long series of hesitation, a several states of frustrating that Fatma went through to finally paint an artwork that she feels satisfied with it, translating her rage feeling and frustration to fiery colors. She painted Decay by blowing colors without using a brush. She let the color flow in any direction without forcing it to follow a particular path.

Fatma al Saadi is an abstract artist who realized her gift of painting way long before this pandemic that forces the whole universe to close. In this period of lockdown, she intensified her training in using colors to produce something beautiful from the state of the pandemic frustration.

“I was reluctant to present my work online as I thought that my humble start wasn’t good enough to be shared with people. However, pushed positively by my friend, I shared them in the social media and there were some positive comments that could boosted me up to share more”, she said.

“The aesthetics of passing from one stage to another, even if we feel pain or fatigue, purifies our soul. Thus, we enter a state of acceptance and satisfaction. Perhaps this is what distinguishes us as human beings from other creatures, that we continue to see beauty and hope even in the ugliest places and the most difficult circumstances,” Fatma said.

Observing Fatma's artworks will find some surreal touches. Some of the paintings she planned to draw, as she may have the beginning of the idea and try to develop it. And sometimes the painting is left to its fate and responding to what appears in front of her.

“I remember one of Plato's philosophies that says that art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life. In other words, a work of art is a copy of a Form. It is even more of an illusion than is ordinary experience”.

She added “We can consider the realistic art as reflection of the form of the real beauty of objects in reality. The creativity of the realistic artists is also measured by the quality of their copies. The more the painting is close to life, the more successful it becomes. However, the opposite happens in the abstract art. It abstracts the apparent features and relies on the essence. the psychological influence becomes the idea or meaning.”

The viewer to abstract artworks has to be knowledgeable person on different kinds of arts. It is difficult to understand the idea on an abstract idea from the first glance. If you are not bothered to understand, you will see the whole wok as a nonsense. But if you want to look at things from different angles and experience a new meaning and move from the husks to the essence of the idea, you will feel that abstract art is a rich and unique spiritual and psychological experience,” she said.

Sharing her view of what the abstract art needs in Oman: “we need to open the field of art and attract a larger audience of young people, because abstract art is a modern and contemporary art. We need to highlight the works of growing artists in the field of art and focus some attention to their efforts as I believe that those professionals in the filed have received enough focus so far. The old generation should open the way for young people and allow the wheel to spin. Art is a cumulative process that aims in the end to refine and educate societies and does not depend only on personal interests and intermediaries.”

“Unfortunately, Corona affected all kinds of arts. Exhibitions are not held as they used to and because of the economic situation, people are no longer spending to buy art. Art, perhaps in our country, is considered a luxury, and therefore it is often left behind when crises intensify,” she added.