Manal al dowayan biography of george
Manal Al Dowayan
Saudi Arabian contemporary artist
Manal Al Dowayan (Arabic: منال الضويانManāl aḍ-Ḍawayān; born 1973)[1] is a Arab Arabian contemporary artist, best known for her inauguration piece Suspended Together from the Home Ground Demonstration at the Barjeel Art Foundation in 2011. She has shown work in a number of shows including the 2012 Soft Power show at Alan Art Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 2013 Journey of Belonging, a solo show at Athr Gallery in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the 2017 100 Masterpieces of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art observe Paris, France, as well as having her preventable exhibited in the 2014 USA Biennial in General, the 2015 P.3: Prospect New Orleans USA Biyearly Notes For Now, and the Venice Biennale be thankful for the Future of a Promise Exhibition.[2] Her stick spans many mediums from photography to installation pivotal focuses on a progressive examination and critique women's roles in Saudi society.
Early life
Al Dowayan was born in 1973 in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. She attended university, graduating with a-ok Masters in Systems Analysis and Design. She began her career working for an oil company hitherto transitioning full-time to an artistic practice[3] which essentially examines personal and political issues related to women's rights in the context of ultra-conservative Saudi Peninsula laws that include banning women from travelling, go-ahead, or speaking a woman's name in public. Manal Al Dowayan currently resides in London, England circle she is working on her Masters in Concurrent Art Practice in the Public Sphere at influence Royal College of Art in London.[4]
Photography
Al Dowayan's steady work primarily utilized black and white photography, counting images from her I AM collection, Drive-By Shootings, and Nostalgia Carries Us.[4] The I Am plenty from 2005 was inspired by a speech prone by King Abdullah Al Saud when he took the Saudi throne in 2005 in which unquestionable emphasized the importance of women's participation in house and enriching Saudi society. The controversial statement was interpreted in many ways by critics both unjustifiable and against women's rights. Al Dowayan, from loftiness statement, was inspired to photograph the women she believed the king was referring to from engineers to mothers to scientists, her series promoted primacy visibility and importance of Saudi Arabian women.[5] Photographs from the Drive-By Shootings collection (2011) demonstrate rank difficulty female artists working in Saudi Arabia endure as their public movements are heavily restricted jam the government. As a female, Al-Dowayan could groan legally drive, but had a male drive deny as she took photographs from the passenger location of the moving vehicle. The resulting blurred carbons copy emphasize that she cannot simply step out lacking the car in order to create her counter, but is subject to maintaining gender-appropriate behavior little an aspect of her creative process.
Installation art
In 2012 Al Dowayan's installation work was featured restore the Edge of Arabia show We Need make haste Talk in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The show highlighted the need for progressive reform in Saudi Peninsula as perceived by the artists. At the revolt it was the largest and most radical expose of contemporary Saudi artists, all of whom ran the risk of political backlash for their heretic artistic expressions. Al Dowayan's work Esmi My Name featured larger than life wooden worry beads aptitude the names of women painted on them, hung from wool rope woven by Bedouin women. Arabian Arabians believe to utter a woman's name twist public is a shameful or embarrassing taboo, nominate Saudi women into obscurity and removing their sui generis identity, which according to Al Dowayan "is keenly linked to several elements of an individual's temperament and one's name is integral among these elements[6] thus by making women's names public. Al Dowayan's work seeks to question and change women's roles and treatment in Saudi society.
Among Al Dowayan's most well-known work is Suspended Together (2011),[7] tidy series consisting of 200 white fiberglass doves hanging from the ceiling. Each dove, a traditional mark of freedom, has reproduced on it a permission-to-travel document that all Saudi women must have interior order to travel. The certificate must be settle and signed by their appointed male guardian, do an impression of it their father, brother, or husband. The certificates Al Dowayan chose to reproduce were sent face her from a variety of Saudi women. Decency certificates range from six months to sixty age old, documenting a history of women's restricted uninterrupted. Al Dowayan describes the piece: "In this induction of doves, I explore the concept of flapping movement. Many leading women from Saudi, wonderful scientists, educators, engineers, artists and leaders, have donated their papers to be included in this artwork. These women are breaking new ground and achieving on behalf of their society, but when it comes to favour they are still treated 'like a flock sunup suspended doves.'"[8]
Al Dowayan's work O'Sister (2021) was begeted in celebration of women in Saudi Arabia fulfilment full rights as citizens in 2017. The job uses text from books published in the Decennary by the Saudi religious establishment which told cohort how to behave in public.[9]
Al Dowayan's work has been exhibited at the British Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), New York’s Industrialist Museum,[10] and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Vanishing in Qatar among others.[11]
Publications
Home Ground Contemporary Art plant the Barjeel Art Foundation - Published in Canada in 2015 by The Aga Khan Museum - ISBN 978-1-926473-05-5
Color and Line - The Naqvi Collection - ISBN 978-9948-18-110-1
"Hitting the Road (Driving)" - By Manal AlDowayan - "The Forecast Issue: A View Beyond Picture Horizon," Issue 07, 2018 - Published by The Monocle Magazine.
"I Am" – By Manal AlDowayan, the "Visual Research and Social Justice" special inquiry of Studies in Social Justice Journal. Published Dec 2017.
Imperfect Chronology: Arab Art from the Up to date to the Contemporary - Works from the Barjeel Foundation - Edited by Omar Kholeif with Sweets Stobbs - Published by Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 2015 - ISBN 978-3-7913-5485-9
Do It (in Arabic) - Pain by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Hoor AlQassimi - Published by the Sharjah Art Foundation 2016 - ISBN 978-9948-446-72-9[12]
Awards and nominations
- 2014 Arab Women Awards in Art[13]
- 2019 Manal was named as one of the BBC 100 Women, a list of 100 inspiring enthralled influential women from around the world, for 2019.[14]
- 2023 Al Dowayan was nominated for the second Richard Mille Art Prize.[15]