Jameel Prize
10 x ANA, Susan Hefuna, wood and ink (detail)
The V&A has just launched The Jameel Prize, a new £25,000 award for artists and designers inspired by Islamic culture.
The prize, which will be awarded every two years, is designed to encourage interaction between contemporary practice and the Islamic traditions of craft and design. It’s been funded by Mohammed Adbul Latif Jameel, the man (and the money) behind the V&A’s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, and is part of the museum’s on-going programme of developing cultural links around the world.
For the first prize, nine artists and designers have been shortlisted by the judging panel, which is chaired by the V&A’s director Mark Jones (architect Zaha Hadid is the prize’s patron). They include Kuwait-born Hamra Abbas, who has made a giant floor covering, Please Do Not Step 3, based on traditional Islamic geometric patterns – although Abbas plays a post-modern game as in spite of its title the piece is displayed so that gallery visitors are forced to walk on it. The other shortlisted artists are Reza Abedini, Afruz Amighi, Hassan Hajjaj, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, Seher Shah and Camille Zakharia. And lovers of good old-fashioned craft will be delighted by the work of Turkish jeweller Sevan Biçakçi and German-born Susan Hefuna.
Biçakçi was chosen for his beautifully made jewellery in the shape of some of his native Istanbul’s famous landmarks. His work’s an interesting mix of the traditional and contemporary as he was apprenticed at the age of 12 to a traditional goldsmith in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, but his work is decidedly contemporary in design, incorporating, in some cases, an entire Ottoman mosque on the body of a single ring. Hefuna’s work also has a distinct craft bent; she has made two pieces in turned wood inspired by the mashrabiyyah screens in Cairo (where she spends half her time) which traditionally were used to cover windows and balconies to prevent women from being seen by the outside world at the same time as allowing them to see out. Many were decorated with religious texts and Hefuna has re-worked this idea using her own modern inscriptions.
Work by the shortlisted artists goes on show at the V&A from 8 July-13 September and the winner of the prize will be announced on 7 July.
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