<i>Loose Leaves. Process, materials, sounds from Listen to my words</i> by Dana Awartani
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By disclosing rarely-seen preparatory drawings, sketches, and embroidery tests from the artist’s archive, <i>Loose Leaves</i> offers an intimate foray into the process of making <i>Listen to my words</i> (2018). An immersive installation by Dana Awartani, <i>Listen to my words<i> combines hand-embroidered silk panels and recordings of Arabic poems recited by modern-day Saudi women to confront issues of silencing, invisibility, and gendered divisions of space deeply entrenched in the cultural fabric of the Middle East. <br /><br />Drawn from the significant but scarcely documented tradition of female poets in the Arab world from the pre-Islamic era to the 12th century, the poems selected by the artist express feelings of love, yearning, and pride. They relay modes of awareness, stances of resistance, and acts of empowerment often centred on the female body. <br /><br />The distinct visual language articulated by the geometric patterns—bearers of sacred values in Islamic culture—references the ornamental motifs found on <i>jali</i> (or <i>mashrabiya</i>), lattice screens used in traditional Islamic architecture to control the circulation of air and light as well as to shield women from the male gaze. <br /><br />Presented alongside the original audio recording, <i>Loose Leaves</i> layers a selection of preparatory studies in the enclosed space of The Vitrine to provide a glimpse of the subtle negotiations that inform Awartani’s creative journey across different techniques and materials. </i></i>
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Dana Awartani
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The rich visual language of Dana Awartani’s (b. 1987, Saudi Arabia) paintings, sculptures, and textile installations incorporate traditional Islamic art forms into contemporary aesthetics. Engaging with the relationship between geometry and nature, she harnesses the timeless and enduring relevance of forms in order to deconstruct contemporary issues such as gender, faith, loss, and cultural destruction. Past solo exhibitions include The Silence Between Us, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2018) and Detroit Affinities: Dana Awartani, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, United States (2017). She has participated in numerous group shows and biennales such as Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016, Kochi, India and the 1st Yinchuan Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China (both 2016), among others.<br /><br />The artist was scheduled to be in-residence from July – Sept 2020. Due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak and international travel restrictions, the artist was unable to participate in the residency programme physically.
1 July – 30 September 2020
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st_age x NTU CCA
Dana Awartani
Listen to my words, 2020
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<p>Co-produced by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) for st_age, an online platform for new commissions initiated by TBA21 as a response to the Covid-19 crisis. It is a provocation to artists, institutions, practitioners, and activists to engage with the many issues that the pandemic has made even more visible in the precarious current moment.</p>
<p>Watch<span> </span><em>Listen to my words</em><span> </span>(2020)<span> </span><span><a href="https://www.stage.tba21.org/detail/listen-to-my-words-2020">here</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>In the empty expanse of the screen, a delicate pattern of straight lines and curved shapes is slowly traced by an invisible hand. In Islamic visual culture, where figurative representation is notoriously forbidden, abstract geometric compositions chart spiritual journeys and convey ideals of cosmic interconnectedness. The pattern created by Dana Awartani for </span><i><span>Listen to my words</span></i><span> is inspired by the ornamental motifs of </span><i><span>jali</span></i><span> and </span><i><span>mashrabiya</span></i><span>, latticed screens used in traditional Islamic architecture to regulate light, airflow, and heat in the arid climate of many Middle Eastern countries. Besides this climatic function, </span><i><span>jali</span></i><span> also play a socially and visually divisive role, marking the confinement of women within the domestic sphere and the impossibility of seeing them clearly.</span></p>
<p><span>The entrancing emergence of the geometric design becomes progressively tangled with the voices of modern-day Saudi women that the artist invited to recite a selection of verses. The selected poems were written by Arab poetesses from the pre-Islamic era up to the 12th century, and reflect the significant but scarcely documented tradition of women’s poetry in the Arab culture. They relay first-person expressions of longing, yearning, and pride penned by women who, in different eras and in different corners of the vast Arab region, found similar strength and empowerment in their bodies and audaciously reversed the male-dominated discourse of desire. </span></p>
<p><span>By interlacing geometric symbolism and poetic utterances, Awartani’s digital animation unleashes these powerful voices once again and orchestrates an intergenerational dialogue that subtly questions the status of women in contemporary society. </span></p>
<p><i><span>Listen to my words</span></i><span> developed from a multimedia installation of the same title realised in 2018.</span></p>
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