On 25 April 2024, Lawrie Shabibi is to launch Charts for a Resurrection, the first solo show by interdisciplinary artist Dima Srouji whose work lies in the expanded context of interdisciplinary research projects. Art enthusiasts and curious minds will be able to look at her thought-provoking art pieces until 20 July 2024.
The exhibition is divided into two sections: the larger terrain and the more intimate chapel, presenting installations and archival prints that intertwine historical artefacts with imaginary archaeological sites.
In the terrain space, on view is the Maintaining the Sacred installation (2023), hand-carved plaster windows incorporating fragments of coloured glass, replicas of the 30 windows in Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque that were destroyed in 2022. The installation imagines future archaeological monuments in the Palestinian landscape constructed using the traditional technique of Qamariya stained glass windows.
Among the exhibits is Maternal Exhumations (2022), two grid installations that mirror one another. One of them reveals complex strata including structures from Palestine’s past, present, and future. The second grid features partially excavated glass vessels. It pays tribute to the Palestinian women who were hired by Western institutions in the 20th century to excavate their land. Maternal Labour, the other series of works (prints on raw aluminium), also honours these women.
Visitors can also see The Red River, Srouji’s installation comprising red hand-blown glass sculptures suspended in the air. The title refers to the Na’aman River (the Belus River) celebrated for its alchemic properties linked to glass production. The red colour symbolises water pollution from nearby industry. The river embodies personal narratives, like the artist’s displaced grandmother, as well as cultural and spiritual transmissions.
The second part of the exhibition evokes a chapel, as its title suggests. It is adorned with floating replicas of archaeological vessels historically used as gifts to one’s afterlife. The chapel fosters healing and envisioning the afterlives of those who are not in this world anymore while imagining the future of Palestine through its fictional archaeological artefacts.
About the artist
Dima Srouji (b. 1990, Nazareth) is an artist, architect, and researcher based in London (UK). She received her BA (Hons) in Architecture from Kingston University (London), which was followed by an M.Arch I from Yale University (Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, CT, USA). Srouji was the 2022-2023 Jameel Fellow at the V&A Museum. Now, she is leading the MA City Design studios at the Royal College of Art (London).
In her work, which includes using various mediums (glass, plaster casts, text, archives, maps, and film), Srouji delves into the cultural depth of the ground and its narratives. Collaborating with archaeologists, anthropologists, sound designers, and artisans, she explores cultural heritage and public space, particularly in the Middle East and Palestine. Reflecting on liberation imaginaries, her artworks question the implications of heritage in conflict zones as well as ideas of identity and globalisation in connection to the spirit of a place and displacement.
Srouji has taken part in many group shows, such as SOUTH WESTBANK – Landworks, Collective Action and Sound, Collateral Event of Biennale Arte 2024 (Magazzino Gallery, Palazzo Polignac, Dorsoduro, Venice, 2024); Zaha Hadid’s Legacy (CAC Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, USA, 2023); Fragments of a Continuous Modernity – A People by the Sea (Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Palestine, 2022); Hollow Forms: Ghosts (Amman Design Week, Jordan, 2019); and others. Her creations are part of such public collections as the Corning Museum of Glass (NY, USA) and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Netherlands).
To learn more about Charts for a Resurrection, please visit the exhibition’s official web page.
You might also like Lament of a tree, a solo show by Iqra Tanveer.
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