ATHR Gallery is hosting Consecrated Networks, a solo exhibition by Saudi artist Basmah Felemban featuring a backlog of documentation, experimentation, and supporting material that built her diverse oeuvre. Curated by artist and independent curator Ruba Al-Sweel, whose fields of interest are media theory and digital communications, the exhibition will remain open until the 14th of May, 2024.
Turning to various abstract topics (for example, Islamic cosmology), Felemban delves into ideas of seen and unseen universes, tapping into psychoanalytic concepts, memory, and nostalgia. The show explores information organisation and demonstrates how the artist interprets the role of archives in the future. For her, they are an organic storehouse of memory traces that are sometimes re-arranged according to new circumstances. In some displayed artworks, Felemban examines the world-building capacities of dreams and looks at architecture as a monument.
Among the works on view is, for instance, Felemban’s video game School as a Model (2024), a walk-through into a 3D model of her high school. In each digital room, one can find a playlist of videos posted by students celebrating the end of the school year. Fish from the Ground (2023), another exhibited artwork, focuses on the bizarre event that happened in Riyadh in 2015: fish growing from the ground in a desert area. The work considers different theories to explain this phenomenon and brings attention to the complex interactions between nature and human activity. Meanwhile, Pulang (To Go Home) (2024), a video installation, tells about the difficulties Felemban faced in tracing the history of her family’s migration to Saudi Arabia. In this installation, she attempts to understand the migration of Indonesian families to Saudi Arabia mostly for religious reasons.
About the artist
Basmah Felemban (b. 1993, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) is an artist, self-taught graphic designer, curator, and researcher of contemporary art movements. She obtained her MFA in Traditional and Islamic Art from The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts (London, UK). In 2014, the artist received The Arab Women Awards in the Young Talent category and joined the judging panel the following year.
Fascinated with symbolism and Islamic metaphysics, Felemban studied 12th-14th century Islamic manuscripts while a student. She was especially interested in those dedicated to cosmographies, mythical creatures, and cartography. This research gave a historical backing to her research-based art pieces that likewise depict traditional Arab and Muslim cosmogonies as well as highlight esoteric meanings in literature, poetry, numerism, and Islamic art. Currently, Felemban explores world-building as a method to understand the mysteries in her family history, the role imagination plays in rewriting identity, and how humans bridge gaps in collective memory.
The artist has taken part in multiple exhibitions and art events, which include Desert to Delta (AMUM, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 2017); Quincy House (Unity, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2015); Art Abu Dhabi and Art Dubai (2014); Art International Istanbul (Turkey, 2013); Rhizoma (Venice Biennale, Italy, 2013); Artists and Hajj (British Museum, London, 2012); and others. In 2011, Felemban founded the Saudi Street Art initiative to support the local Jeddah creative scene.
To learn more about Consecrated Networks, please visit the show’s official web page.
You might also be interested in looking at The Cell by Zahrah Alghamdi, a public art piece on the front of the Hayy Jameel building. Additionally, we would recommend you visiting MetaWhat? at Media Majlis.
