Emirati artist Afra Al Dhaheri presents her new solo exhibition titled Give Your Weight To The Ground. Accompanied by special sound, it features her latest artworks (paintings and sculptures) and invites visitors to slow down, observe, and interpret the displayed art pieces. On view at the Green Art Gallery in Dubai, the show will be open to the public until the 5th of January, 2024.
The exhibition’s leitmotif is the idea of grounding. Here, its two meanings are intertwined: literal and metaphorical. In her artist statement, Al Dhaheri mentions her mother’s words (“Take your fallen hair and bury it in the soil of your house plant. They will nourish it”). It made her reflect on how our bodies return to the earth to nurture it. The artist wonders if grounding ourselves could be another manifestation of that return.
The show is a result of Al Dhaheri’s exploration of the connection between materiality and the body (a tangible construct). She also examines the relations between labour, time, inherited ideologies, and inhabited spaces (intangible constructs).
About the artist
Afra Al Dhaheri (b. 1988, Abu Dhabi, UAE), who still resides in her hometown, received a BA in Graphic Design from Zayed University (Abu Dhabi) in 2011. In 2017, she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (USA) with an MFA in Painting.
In her art practice, which incorporates sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, photography, and printmaking, Al Dhaheri delves into such themes as time, adaptation, rigour, fragility, loss, and memory. She invites one to contemplate social constructs, using contrasting materials such as, for example, concrete and hair. The latter has a particular place among the mediums of her choice. The artist employs both real hair and its representations created using ropes.
“Hair has a lot of meanings in different cultures,” Al Dhaheri says. “I talk […] from my perspective growing up in the UAE where [hair is considered] a private body part that we cover.” Questioning these private boundaries, the artist produces art pieces in which she explores cultural constructs and social conditioning.
Al Dhaheri has showcased her creations in numerous exhibitions across the world which include Inevitable Ephemera (a solo show at T + H Gallery, Boston, MA, USA, 2016); Art Here 2022 x Richard Mille Art Prize (Louvre Abu Dhabi, 2022) (Al Dhaheri was chosen as one of the finalists); Between the Sky and the Earth: Contemporary Art from the UAE (Middle East Institute, Washington, DC, USA, 2021); Under Construction (Misk Art Institute, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2021); Beyond: Emerging Artists (Cromwell Place, London, UK, 2021); Beyond: Emerging Artist (Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, 2020); From Within (Riyadh, 2019); and others.
The list of residencies which Al Dhaheri has undertaken includes those from the Watermill Center (NY, USA, 2023), Viafarini (Milan, Italy, 2022), and Porthmeor Studios (St. Ives, Cornwall, UK, 2019). In 2014, she participated in the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship program (in collaboration with the Rhode Island School of Design). The artist also took part in Emirati Expressions 2011 and was an intern at the Guggenheim Museum New York (USA) as well as at the Venice Biennale 2011 (Italy).
To get more information about Give Your Weight To The Ground, please visit the exhibition’s official web page.
You might also be interested in attending Solid Void by Asma Belhamar and Introspection as Resistance by Mehdi Moutashar.
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