Jameel Arts Centre presents Artist’s Rooms: Amba Sayal-Bennett, an exhibition displaying Amba Sayal-Bennett’s works created over the last eight years. These pieces explore the social-political dimensions of architectural heritage, modernist ideologies, and colonial legacies. They trace the migration of architectural forms across continents, connecting with Sayal-Bennett’s personal history. Part of the Artist’s Rooms initiative, the show will be open to the public until 24 November 2024.
Sayal-Bennett’s multidisciplinary practice investigates the nature of abstraction, creating interactions between the human and non-human, and critiques colonial practices. Her focus on modernist architecture considers how its forms travelled globally, including to Chandigarh in Punjab (India), where her maternal grandparents were born. Through this, the artist examines the diasporic experience and the movement of bodies, knowledge, and architectural forms across different regions. Designed by famous Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, Chandigarh embodies modernism’s limitations in a post-colonial context. In her art, Sayal-Bennett reflects on this architectural style’s dismissal of ornamentation and its complex inheritance.
Her inspiration draws notably from the sci-fi genre, which has been criticised for its colonial themes and glorification of imperial conquest. Sayal-Bennett finds interest in sci-fi motifs as they relate to the diasporic experience, such as the concept of entanglement (being in two places simultaneously) and teleportation devices that rematerialise and reconfigure bodies in various locations.
Although Sayal-Bennett’s work lacks figurative elements, the presence of the body is implied through her interaction with materials and technologies, which she perceives as agents with their own influence. Her practice prompts spectators to reconsider abstraction and explore the intertwined relationships between past, present, and future.
About the artist
Amba Sayal-Bennett (b. 1991, London, UK) is a British-Indian artist still residing in her hometown, whose work encompasses drawing, projection, and sculptural installation. She obtained her BFA from Oxford University (2012), an MA in Art History from The Courtauld Institute (2013), and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (2021). The artist also completed her PhD in Art Practice and Learning at Goldsmiths (2018) and works as an Associate Lecturer in Visual Culture at the University of the West of England (Bristol).
Sayal-Bennett’s creations have appeared in a plethora of exhibitions, including Proposals for a Memorial to Partition (solo) (Twelve Gates, Philadelphia, USA, 2023); Introducing Diana (DIANA, New York, US, 2022); The 5th Edition of Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer (Slough, UK, 2021); And Proceed To Fill The Next Fold, The Future (Galleri 21, Malmö, Sweden, 2019); Deft Nodes (solo) (Lundgren Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 2016); and many others.
Among the artist’s awards are the Gilbert Bayes Award (Royal Society of Sculptors, 2020), Graduate Studio Award (A.P.T, 2014–2016), and WW SOLO Award (WW Gallery, 2014), to name a few. She has also taken part in several residency programmes, including Arnis Residency (Arnis, Germany, 2020), Cypher Carving Residency (Dorset, UK, 2019), and CERN Quantum Futures (CERN, 2019).
The artist’s works have been added to such public collections as the Saatchi Collection, Western Art Print Room Collection (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK), and Art Jameel.
To get more information about Artist’s Rooms: Amba Sayal-Bennett, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in viewing Artist’s Rooms: Sancintya Mohini Simpson. We also recommend you visit Istoria: A Retrospective Reimagining Middle Eastern Feminism, an exhibition showcasing renowned Syrian artist Leila Nseir’s works.
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