Residency and exhibition from 8 April 2014 – 7 June 2014
“This is the closest I’ve ever come to a scientific experiment, whereby I am both the experimenter and the subject. As an experimenter I want to create real-life moments that mirror my drawings. These drawings are part of a world where nothing is impossible and the extraordinary is quite ordinary. A world where a scenario seems commonplace at first glance but subtly transforms into a sordid tale. In this box there’s a story that will change over the next few weeks. As a subject of this experiment, I am a specimen who is extracted from her everyday life and placed in a room. This room is void of motherly duties, everyday chores and quotidian detail. It allows for exploration, normally hindered by daily distractions such as a trip to the supermarket or visiting a sick relative. It’s a total abdication of responsibility as a member of society. For a moment, I will merely be a girl in a box.” Ghadah Alkandari
Mathaf invites Ghadah Alkandari to its Project Space to conceive a project that includes a residency followed by an exhibition from 8 April to 7 June 2014. This is Mathaf third proposal to host and activate experimental tendencies in art and curatorial practices, offering its Project Space to production possibilities and curatorial dialogue within a museum in progress.
In the worlds created by Ghadah Alkandari lives one character. Her several clones drone in a timeless space. They live with or without anything and everything, borrowing their body parts from or losing them to all objects and creatures. For Mathaf’s Project Space, Alkandari migrates objects from her drawings into the real space of the room; objects that upset the norms of exhibition experience, requiring the body of the viewer to adjust or deform in order for these objects to function.
Pushing the boundaries of her own artistic vocabulary, this is the artist’s first attempt to produce sculptural objects that translate the world of her character into an exhibition context. The artist’s perception of domestic space, as well as her dissection of her personal experience in imagery and words, respond to the current exhibitions at Mathaf.
Curated by Ala Younis
Project Space, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
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