Saudi artist Dana Awartani discusses her recent projects with curator and art historian Laura Metzler as part of the Jameel’s ‘Conversations on Practice’ series of artist-led presentations. This talk coincides ‘The Silence Between Us: Poetry and Light in the work of Dana Awartani’, the artist’s first institutional solo presentation, on currently at Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah (until 18 February 2019).

Dana Awartani lives and works in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and has developed a practice by blending her conceptual training at Central Saint Martins with her craft study at the Prince’s School of Traditional Art, thus creating a dialogue between the traditional and the contemporary. She does this through a combination of textile, woodwork, and glass production methods that are particularly still active in India, as well as her manuscript illuminations. Through these mediums, light activates, distorts or reveals at different turns throughout the gallery space as the viewer encounters each piece.

Laura Metzler is a curator and art historian from Houston, Texas. She received her MA from the American University of Beirut and her BA from the University of Texas at Austin. She has been living and working in the arts in the Middle East since 2011 and has previously been the Associate Director of The Third Line, Dubai and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut. She is particularly interested in transnational narratives and emerging art historiographies. Her research has focused on the later works of Lebanese sculptor Saloua Raouda Choucair.