In 2010, Lebanese artist Laudi Abilama commenced a series of artworks portraying the most prominent leaders of the Middle East, but sought to challenge the usual all-powerful portraiture found in their own countries to reveal traits of their personalities.Her latest endeavor moves to Southeast Asia with a focus on Singapore’s former Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew (LKY). The exhibition "Prime Minister LEE KUAN YEW" by Laudi Abilama will run at Sana Gallery March 6 to April 26, presenting 11 portraits of the political leader using a stencil style of screen printing on paper and linen. Integrated into her images are traces of geometric forms drawn at random with emerging lines determining the continuation of the composition. “There is no set start or end point for each line, but rather a link between them and a silent potential for forms and compositions to emerge, in much the same way as PM LKY steered his nation to prosperity,” the artist explains. BLOUIN Artinfo talked to Abilama about her latest series:Why choose LKY?My first encounter with Lee Kuan Yew as a subject was when I completed a residency in Singapore in 2011. His persona crept up on me as I spent most days discovering the city and getting to know the people that lived in it. As time passed and my trip grew to a close, many questions arose in my mind. In particular, why is the country so small yet so prosperous? What makes it work as opposed to Lebanon, a country of very similar geography yet entirely different in political makeup and leadership? Lee Kuan Yew, through what I have learned, was a hard man. That in itself is inspiring, he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind knowing his dreams were bigger than people’s perception of him. He had an ultimate vision, which may have seemed overambitious at the time (over 50 years ago) but has now shown to have had impressive consequences. I envy Singaporeans for being blessed which such a firm leader although it is all too obvious that he lives amongst skeptics and always has done so.How does this work fit into your overall practice?This series of works is a continuation or a ‘branch’ of the Arab Heroes series (2010) where I treated prominent political and royal personalities from the Middle East in a similar way to my Lee Kuan Yew work. Being of Lebanese heritage has had a profound effect on my perception of ‘leaders’ and led to a delicate obsession with the embodiment of the title ‘politician’. For me, policymakers are the ultimate personality because they have the power to control our minds and to change our lives without necessarily being worthy of such a position. Lee Kuan Yew fits into the natural progression of discovering the modern world’s most powerful and influential leaders. Much like Mao was to Warhol, I believe that Lee Kuan Yew has had the same influence on me both as an artist and citizen of the world.You used photographs of him, some older, some more recent, how did you select those?I used photographs that I felt I could work with in terms of showing the diverse characteristics of Lee Kuan Yew’s personality — or at least my perception of them — the aim being not only to show him as a ‘positive’ figure, but also to challenge the image of him as a whole and break down his personality into many surfaces, of an ordinary man rather than a ‘God-like’ figure. The photographs I used were licensed from Getty Images.What did you want to achieve?I like to leave it to the audience to find a place for themselves in a portrait and at the same time create enough ambiguity to maintain a certain curiosity about each piece. When you live with portraits they tend to wear on you and become repetitive, even boring sometimes. The idea with my work is not to achieve ‘beauty’ or allure in a portrayal but to present an artwork that is intriguing and that every time you look at it, it discloses something new about the individual you are looking at.
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