Maha Malluh
05 Mar - 04 Apr 2015
© Maha Malluh
Sky Clouds, 2009
700 black polyester gloves filled with polyester and dessert sands, praying rugs
50 x 400 x 680 cm
Sky Clouds, 2009
700 black polyester gloves filled with polyester and dessert sands, praying rugs
50 x 400 x 680 cm
MAHA MALLUH
Translated
5 March – 4 April 2015
After the group show „Edge of Arabia“in 2012, Translated will be the first solo show of Saudi Arabian Artist Maha Malluh.
The exhibtion Translated by Maha Malluh and the Porject Characters and Figures by Maha Malluh are not only to be understood as a dialogue but also as a cultural exchange of two artists of global relevance.
In this exhibition, which brings together several of Maha Malluh's works which toy with somatic senses, we are drawn into a transformed world of objects. No longer do these objects perform the intended function at production point. Rather they have migrated from the world of manufacturing to the artistic realm, to be poetically redeployed by Malluh. In transforming those very tools which create the art, Malluh enables a richer exploration of and dialogue with contemporary challenges, both globally and in her home country Saudi Arabia.
The fascination with tactility is an essential feature of Malluhʼs ouvre. Beginning first with a sense of comfort derived from touching familiar objects, the relationship with such objects developed so that she became estranged unto them. These were objects which she once had a certain emotional attachment to, through memory, through use, through heritage. Yet as a result of spending several hours with them, she became concerned with how their functional purpose, the memories attached to them and their later obsolete indifferent existence continually was transformed and translated.
Every series in Translated is a testament to those changing functionalities. Where trays once hugged warm, freshly baked bread with wafting aromas of home, the trays are now hung on a white-washed wall of a white-cubed gallery housing tapes which have also been translated from their original purpose to be listened to. Yet despite this removal from their original Saudi Arabian locale to the global space of the art gallery, there is more of a curiosity and ken interest rather than satire and derision. It is playful toying with the serious issue of consumption and globalisation, whilst appreciating the aesthetic beauties of translated materials.
The fascination is thus with change. Even with the gloved hands, there is no longer the Western mediaʼs fascination with traditional Saudi attire as much as there is a reappropriaton and translation of what is applicable in one space in a given time. These gloved hands form part of a larger community translated as static objects, but also holding within them the tension of change and flux.
Maha Malluh, born 1959 in Riyad, Saudi Arabia, lives and works in Riyad and London. After studying Fine Arts at the S.M.U. in Dallas, USA she graduated with a BA in Englisch Literature from Riyadʼs King Saud University in 1993, in 2000 Maha Malluh received a certificate in design and photography at the De Anza College, California, USA. Maha Malluh has been participating in numerous group shows and her works have been presented in solo shows in Saudi Arabia and the UK. Her art works are in a great number of private collections as well as in the collections of the Tate Modern and the British Museum in London, the UBS Art Collections, the Grennbox Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the Ibraaz Foundation and the The Jameel Foundation.
Translated
5 March – 4 April 2015
After the group show „Edge of Arabia“in 2012, Translated will be the first solo show of Saudi Arabian Artist Maha Malluh.
The exhibtion Translated by Maha Malluh and the Porject Characters and Figures by Maha Malluh are not only to be understood as a dialogue but also as a cultural exchange of two artists of global relevance.
In this exhibition, which brings together several of Maha Malluh's works which toy with somatic senses, we are drawn into a transformed world of objects. No longer do these objects perform the intended function at production point. Rather they have migrated from the world of manufacturing to the artistic realm, to be poetically redeployed by Malluh. In transforming those very tools which create the art, Malluh enables a richer exploration of and dialogue with contemporary challenges, both globally and in her home country Saudi Arabia.
The fascination with tactility is an essential feature of Malluhʼs ouvre. Beginning first with a sense of comfort derived from touching familiar objects, the relationship with such objects developed so that she became estranged unto them. These were objects which she once had a certain emotional attachment to, through memory, through use, through heritage. Yet as a result of spending several hours with them, she became concerned with how their functional purpose, the memories attached to them and their later obsolete indifferent existence continually was transformed and translated.
Every series in Translated is a testament to those changing functionalities. Where trays once hugged warm, freshly baked bread with wafting aromas of home, the trays are now hung on a white-washed wall of a white-cubed gallery housing tapes which have also been translated from their original purpose to be listened to. Yet despite this removal from their original Saudi Arabian locale to the global space of the art gallery, there is more of a curiosity and ken interest rather than satire and derision. It is playful toying with the serious issue of consumption and globalisation, whilst appreciating the aesthetic beauties of translated materials.
The fascination is thus with change. Even with the gloved hands, there is no longer the Western mediaʼs fascination with traditional Saudi attire as much as there is a reappropriaton and translation of what is applicable in one space in a given time. These gloved hands form part of a larger community translated as static objects, but also holding within them the tension of change and flux.
Maha Malluh, born 1959 in Riyad, Saudi Arabia, lives and works in Riyad and London. After studying Fine Arts at the S.M.U. in Dallas, USA she graduated with a BA in Englisch Literature from Riyadʼs King Saud University in 1993, in 2000 Maha Malluh received a certificate in design and photography at the De Anza College, California, USA. Maha Malluh has been participating in numerous group shows and her works have been presented in solo shows in Saudi Arabia and the UK. Her art works are in a great number of private collections as well as in the collections of the Tate Modern and the British Museum in London, the UBS Art Collections, the Grennbox Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the Ibraaz Foundation and the The Jameel Foundation.