By Maan Jalal
Ania Soliman is preoccupied with all facets of translation The interdisciplinary artist’s commissioned work for Art Dubai 2025 is exploring the translation of electricity both literally and figuratively. Kahrabaa’, which is the Arabic word for electricity, is an installation where Soliman studies the relationships between technology, nature and memory. The work encompasses many aspects of her practice from large-scale drawings to painting, and artificial intelligence (AI). The work’s first iteration began in 2022 in Beirut, where Soliman found herself creating work based on the scarcity of electricity.
Kahrabaa’ consists of four large-scale canvas works, each measuring at 500cm by 300 cm combined with four smaller paintings measuring 190cm by 130 cm. The colour Cerulean Blue is a visual thread blending both the figurative elements in Kahrabaa’ and the depictions and translations of electricity in various styles.
The images, painted by Soliman, are generated from her exploration and experimentation with AI. Soliman used AI not as a tool to produce images based on a singular existing styles or iconography, but collaborated with it to reimagine a synthesis of ideas, creating images that were surprising and innovative.In this interview Soliman discusses the inspiration behind Kahrabaa’, working with AI and what she hopes viewers will leave with after they experience her work.
Can you tell us about Kahrabaa’?
The project is really about translation. And by translation, I mean not just words or cultures, but like energy and memory and movement. For me, the idea of electricity is a metaphorical structure that almost allows us to connect things that are not normally connected.
How did you first get the idea for the work?
Kahrabaa’ really began in Beirut. The city and the region is undergoing an economic and energy crisis. There’s almost no public supply of electricity and so the word Kahrabaa is very much in the air and on everybody’s minds. I spent five weeks there and I wanted to make a work that responded to the energy of the city and I began to focus on this idea of translation. So the first stage of the work was to make these big blue paintings. That was the starting point.
How did you use AI as a tool?
We usually focus on probability with AI but what interests me a lot is the chance aspect. So instead of repeating memories or structures from the past, if you use chance processes, then you actually get novelty, you get surprised, you get weird syntheses. What I do is I confuse AI. I add so many different prompts and different styles that it doesn’t know how to generate. You know it’s working when it gives you a whole slew of very different kinds of imagery. I generate hundreds of images and then it’s very important to me to remake them by hand. So, the idea of painting or drawing is another layer of translation.
How do you want the viewer to experience Kahrabaa’?
I’ve been thinking a lot about that, what my obligations are, what’s too much information, what’s not enough information, and finding a balance between that. There’s a lot of stories behind the work. I want the first encounter to be mysterious, so you don’t know what it is, and then to be curious. But also, because I paint and draw, there’s not just an intellectual or conceptual communication, it’s about the body. So you communicate through the body and emotionally or subconsciously.
What do you want viewers to leave with?
I want people to think about electricity in a new way and think about how it moves through organic and technological bodies. I also want them to think about how nature and technology are connected, the emotions that our culture generates, and about consumption. I love this idea of the mysteriousness of human interaction. We communicate in ways we don’t understand and that’s something that is not given enough space in daily existence. That’s the most interesting art for me, that which provides these new spaces for human connection, even if it’s not direct and it’s through objects.
