UNDER CONSTRUCTION - RIYADH KSA - MISK ART INSTITUTE
Mishari was one of the ten recipients of Misk’s Art Grant 2021 the theme for the grant, Under Construction, derives from the symbolic state of Arab society as emerging cultural hubs concerned with perspective. In particular, how identity is perceived as an emblem of growth, continuity, and endless iterations of cultural representations throughout history. Artists and designers from the Middle East and North Africa are invited to address the theme as a process of displacement, repetition, distortion, and incompleteness in a time of synthesis, understanding, and promise for the future. As we attempt to reconfigure our identity within the Arab world's diverse framework, how can you reconstruct the understanding of your identity to encompass the notion of being ongoing or ‘under construction’?
The pieces Mishari presented in the grant’s exhibition, Under Construction, are a continuous study of the erased and changed architectural heritage of the city by merging the architectural language of the buildings of the central business district 9 (CBD 9) in downtown Kuwait City and documenting it with textile art. Beiz on Beiz and Blockat are meant as a visual representation and contemporary snapshot of the district's architectural elements along with the products it offers. The works pays homage to AlNajjar's late grandmother as well as the women in his family and their relationship to the art of textiles.
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Photos courtesy of Misk Art Institute, Riyadh, KSA