Sharjah24: Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) announced that the 2022 ASEAN Artists Residency Programme (AARP) grantees Saiful Razman and Eunice Sanchez, both from Southeast Asia, have commenced their month-long residency at the Foundation.

The AARP, co-organized by Sharjah Art Foundation and Maybank Foundation, was started on January 10, 2022.

More than 60 submissions were submitted for the open call in November 2021 from young emerging artists in ten Southeast Asian countries.

President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, as well as prominent members of other organizations in Southeast Asia were on the selection panel.

The two artists were chosen because of the quality of their proposals and because the residency had the potential to help them further their careers.

For Sanchez, a Manila-based artist and museum employee, photography and alternative photographic processes are her primary mediums.

Her work focuses on the preservation and perception of the past.

Razman, a Malaysian artist residing in Kuala Lumpur, has experimented with a wide range of mediums, including pop-inspired collages and abstract oil paintings that play with colour and pattern. Disposable goods and commonplace objects are the focus of his most recent work.

To expand their practice, Sanchez and Razman collaborated with local communities in Sharjah. They used the rooftop, courtyard and rooms of Sharjah Art Foundation’s heritage house Bait Obaid Al Shamsi in Arts Square as studio spaces in the development and production of their works.

The introduction of this special edition of the AARP demonstrates that, despite the pandemic, art persists and relationships are strengthened in times of adversity. 

“Maybank Foundation and Sharjah Art Foundation are co-sponsoring the residency programme's global expansion. The goal over the next several years is to expand the AARP's reach and include more new artists from all ASEAN member nations," said Lee Yoong Yoong, Director for Community Affairs at the ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN's Commissioner-General for Expo 2020 Dubai.”

“We are delighted to have worked with ASEAN on this important initiative that builds on the Foundation’s mandate to foster local, regional and international development in contemporary art,” noted Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation.

"Through a variety of activities, including site visits, workshops, and informal opportunities for interaction, the residency invites the granted artists to explore and deepen their skills."

Sanchez and Razman will offer seminars at Bait Obaid Al Shamsi in Arts Square as part of their stay to connect with the local community.

"Temporary Place: An Experiment on Collaborative Collage" will be held on February 5, 2022 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Razman's workshop space. It's an Imaginary Place-themed collage-making workshop where participants will learn how to use collaging methods in combination with a discussion of the topic and in order to produce an artwork.

'Light, Foliage and Flora: A Cyanotype Printing Workshop' will be held by Eunice Sanchez on Sunday, February 6, 2022 from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Eunice Sanchez. Participants in this workshop will learn about the history of cyanotype printing and will experiment with cyanotype printing on paper using foliage and flora as subjects.