Time Beyond Place – The
Cultural Bridge is a cross-cultural
collaborative platform initiated by New York-based artist, Anne
Senstad, for women artists that responds to the preservation
of cultural and architectural heritage, domesticity
and memory.
The project is part of an
initiative by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, which seeks to
facilitate authentic cultural exchange between the
United States and Saudi Arabia through fully
immersive and collaborative projects.
Senstad will be in Saudi
Arabia throughout 2017 to produce artwork in
collaboration with artist Jameelah Mater who works with
traditional Qut wall paintings and natural materials in Abha
and with internationally established
Saudi contemporary artists, Ghada Da based and Dr.
Zahrah Alghamdi.
Together they will produce contemporary art works inspired
by traditional craftsmanship. Through this project
Senstad aims to raise awareness of
the preservation of cultural heritage and architecture while
honoring the little-known history
of women artisans of the Asir region.
The collaboration aims to
establish a new cultural
production platform and to celebrate the rich history of
house painting traditions from the Asir region, as well as cultural
narratives and regional historic architecture. The project
will culminate in an exhibition in response to the
artists’ interpretations of the traditional Qut
patterns in a contemporary context, including textile
and earth sculpture; technology, light and sound art; photography and video
art; paintings and painted found object installations, and
performance installation art.
Time
Beyond Place – The Cultural Bridge began in February
2016. This iteration of the project will culminate in a series of international
exhibitions being planned in Saudi Arabia, Norway and the United States.
This is part of a multi-city Saudi
artist’s tour of the United States supported by the King Abdulaziz Center for
World Culture and CULTURUNNERS, an international platform for traveling
artists.
Qut Workshop in Abha Feb 22-26 2017 The workshop was taught by artist Jameela Mater and organized by Anne Senstad and Jameela as part of Time Beyond Place. Participants from the Asiri region learnt traditional pattern making, old Asiri systems and rules of the compositions, as well as developing their personal touch and individual sense as artists. The workshop sought to create a collaborative space of togetherness for young women artists to develop their sense of artistic practice, as well as for Senstad as a western artist to learn the tradition - creating a bridge between cultural memory and practices across borders.
Images from the workshop:
For
interview requests and high res images, please contact info@culturunners.com
ABOUT
ANNE SENSTAD:
Anne Senstad is an interdisciplinary
artist based in New York. She was educated at Parsons School of Design and
The New School for Social Research, NY. Senstad works in the intersections of installation
art, photography, video, site and performative specific work, text
interventions and land art. She is concerned with sensorial aesthetics,
perception and transformative ideas of art and
philosophical practice, and social-political awareness. Anchored in her examinations
of the experiential and experimental are spatial and topographic considerations
of light, sound and color. Her sources lie in literature, philosophy,
technology and cultural phenomena.
Senstad has exhibited in the Venice
Biennale in 2015 and 2013 and the Bruges Art and Architecture Triennale in
Belgium in 2015. Upcoming projects and exhibitions include a commissioned
public art light sculpture for the Bruges public Library in Belgium to be
unveiled August 2017, and a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2017 at the Centro
Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli.
Her video work has been shown at
Centre Pompidou, Paris, Haus Der Kultur Der Welt in Berlin, Beirut Art Center,
Lebanon, The Canadian Museum of Nature, Museum of Modern Art Ukraine, Dallas
Aurora, Video Arte Internacional Buenos Aires, Eva Peron Museum, Oslo Screen
Festival, Views Bahrain under the patronage of H.E. Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al
Khalifa, and ISEA Dubai 2014 amongst others.
ABOUT
GHADA DA:
Having studied Fine Arts at Central
St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, Ghada Da’s multi-disciplinary
fine art practice focuses mainly on performative sculpture and video
installations. Her durational work is a journey of observation on the
relationship of the body to space, its disconnect and rebirth. Exploring the
genderless body is at the core of her practice.
The main aim of Da’s work is an
investigation of the visible landscape presented by the body and the spatial
area in which the body exists as well as its invisible counter part: the
psyche. This helps her create a dialogue with the body and understand its complexity.
Da tends to create images that become psychological portraits of the identity
of the human condition by either an intentional mutation or an intersex by
design, in order to allow the sculptural body to live outside the gender
system.
Da is from Saudi Arabia and is
currently based in Dubai, UAE. Her works have been shown locally and
internationally including: Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, Pon
Ding Gallery Taiwan, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul, Sharjah Art Foundation,
Sharjah, Saatchi Gallery, London, Satellite Space, Dubai amongst others.
ABOUT
DR ZAHRAH ALGHAMDI:
Dr. Zahrah Alghamdi gained a
doctorate in Design and Visual Arts at Coventry University in Britain and is
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Art and Design at the King Abdulaziz University.
Alghamdi grew up in South-Western
Saudi Arabia surrounded by traditional domestic architecture. In her current
work, she reaches back to the memory of these spaces along with their personal
associations and wider cultural significations. By creating an echo of the
past, she brings this past into contact with the present, seeking to
demonstrate changes of style in architecture from traditional techniques,
materials, and resources.
Even if we demolish buildings from
the past, ‘home’ will not be destroyed, but will live on in tangled and complex
ways, through the memories of people who have lived in these spaces. ‘Home’ for
me is bound with the architecture of my memory. In the development of new
architecture’s regional styles, materials and techniques have been lost. It is
this loss that she aims to engage with in her work.
ABOUT
JAMEELA MATER:
Jameela was
born in Tabuk and grew up in Abha. She comes from an artist family who have for
generations worked with the traditions of Quat painting. The family encouraged
her interest in art from a very young age, and she found herself drawn to
patterns and colors which she has developed research on the relationship
between traditional and contemporary art. Her education in the field of
physics with an emphasis on the science of color influenced her work from the
early stages of her art practice. Jameela has
developed a unique system for creating color pigment, using
high-quality natural materials and pigments such as honey, ground stones and plants. She is
currently in the process of establishing an academy for the Qut practice with
the vision of reviving historic techniques of traditional art by integrating
Qut traditions with contemporary art practices. She has exhibited her work in numerous
exhibitions and is the recipient of prizes and certificates in Saudi Arabia.
@jameelhmater
ABOUT
THE KING ABDULAZIZ CENTER FOR WORLD CULTURE:
The King Abdulaziz Center for World
Culture, simply known as ithra, is a one-of-a-kind institution that brings
together multiple offerings under one roof. From arts and culture to science
and innovation, this bold initiative by Saudi Aramco promises a continuous
journey of enrichment designed to energize the next knowledge economy of Saudi
Arabia.
ithra aims to make a positive and
tangible impact on the cultural scene by focusing on building local talents in
the knowledge and creative industries. Blending iconic architectural design
with advanced technology, and unique learning methods with enriching programs,
ithra is an infinitely inspiring platform for explorers, learners, creators,
and leaders – a thriving hub of knowledge, creativity and cross-cultural
engagement.
As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
strives to achieve its ambitious national development goals to transition to a
knowledge-based economy, ithra acts as a bridge connecting cultures and
cultivating a creative and innovative community and invests in the power of
people and ideas to unlock new possibilities.
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