Clock Care Mona Ayyash
The Clock Doesn’t Care by Mona Ayyash
29.07.2024
   Reading 2 min
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421 Arts Campus, formerly known as Warehouse421, in Abu Dhabi is holding The Clock Doesn’t Care, the first solo show by Palestinian artist Mona Ayyash. Commissioned as part of 421’s Artistic Development Programme, it features Ayyash’s video work that focuses on repetitive movements without purpose or productivity and questions the tension between passing time and wasting it. The exhibition will be open to the public until the 25th of August, 2024.

The artwork, which is composed of six single-channel digital videos, was created in collaboration with a group of actors, dancers, and performance artists comprising Inês de Almeida, Dana Amer, Ahmed Elsaghier, Ralph Kabalan, Dalia Khalife, Sara Masinaei, Mohsen Mohi, Vighnesh Prasad, and Alina Vishnevskaia. Selected through an open call, these performers filmed themselves responding to movement prompts, encouraged to explore the concept of “doing nothing.” Ayyash then edited the collected footage, isolating small gestures, repeating them in loops, and layering them side-by-side or on top of each other. The resulting art piece examines the themes of the everyday and the mundane. Here, repetition is employed to stretch time and elevate overlooked movements, granting them greater significance.

With its title referring to the relentless, indifferent march of time, The Clock Doesn’t Care serves as a playful inquiry into the objective nature of time. Designed as a fragmented route including viewing platforms and cut-out frames, the exhibition provides an immersive experience. It invites visitors to engage with boredom through repetition and slowness, encouraging them to let time flow naturally.

About the artist

Mona Ayyash (b. 1987, Kuwait City), who resides in Dubai, obtained a BFA in Visual Communications from Photography American University in Dubai in 2009. She pursued her education at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), from which she graduated with an MFA in Studio Arts.

Mona Ayyash, She’ll be apples, 2013. Three-channel digital video. 36’ 59’’.

Ayyash has participated in a number of collective exhibitions and art events, which include The Distance from Here (Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2022); Tashweesh (the UAE Unlimited Programme at Maraya Art Centre. Sharjah, 2019); Loaning Sister Cities (Casino Artspace, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2016); and SIKKA Art Fair (Dubai, 2012), to name a few. The artist has undertaken Warehouse 421 Homebound Residency (2020/2021), Alserkal Residency (Dubai, 2017), and VON_ Artist Residency (Cuernavaca, Mexico, 2014).

To get more information about The Clock Doesn’t Care, please visit the official web page of the show.

You might also be interested in seeing Etheralscape, an installation by Dr Alkhuzama Alharami and Guillaume Rouseré.

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