Ghada Da is a Saudi Arabian artist and based in Dubai, UAE. Having received a scholarship to study her foundation and BA in Fine Arts at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, Ghada’s multi-disciplinary fine art practice focuses mainly on performative sculpture and video installations. Her work is a journey of observation and exploration on disconnect, the genderless body, finding home, rebirth, identity and the representation of the sacred body.
Her works are shown internationally including, Satellite (Dubai), Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah), Saatchi Gallery (London), Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai), Mumford Fine Art Gallery (London), Ductac Gallery (Dubai)
Cuneiform, Menstrual blood on paper (detail), 2015
Guanyin Pusa, Multi-media projection, gold leaf, molded latex, found wood, green tea powder, color pigment, cactus, sandalwood and sound, Duration 3 days, 2015
Guanyin Pusa, Multi-media projection, gold leaf, molded latex, found wood, green tea powder, color pigment, cactus, sandalwood and sound, Duration 3 days, 2015
Orient, Mother-of-pearl, Ottchil, Birch Wood, 35 x 35 cm, 2015, Courtesy of Nidal Morra
Orient, Mother-of-pearl, Ottchil, Birch Wood, 35 x 35 cm, 2015, Courtesy of Nidal Morra
私语[tsuyuu], Early 19th century cloisonné censer Qing dynasty, 2 antique Chinese chairs, 200 bottles and 200 Shanghai citizens, Duration 3 days, 2015, Courtesy of the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, China
私语[tsuyuu], Early 19th century cloisonné censer Qing dynasty, 2 antique Chinese chairs, 200 bottles and 200 Shanghai citizens, Duration 3 days, 2015, Courtesy of the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, China
Ghada Da
JW Stella
(Director of JW Stella Arts
Collectives,
International Associate Curator of
Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art)
Of Saudi origin, UK born and UAE based, artist and
cultural practitioner Ghada Da is
one of the young cultural nomads whose practice is based on relational
performances.
Being inspired by French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who said ‘we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; but spiritual beings having a human
experience’, Ghada Da’s current art performances across the East communicate beyond language,
race, gender and socio-cultural-political boundaries.
The body and
spirit are core to her practice; the artist’s body itself acts as a host that
allows her creativity to germinate. Through the process of overturning the
notion of identities misjudged by the stereotypical prejudices within different
paradigms, Ghada Da endeavours to come closer to her true ego.
In the summer of
2015, she visited Shanghai and Seoul, the fastest changing cities in Asia, in the
pursuit of creating two new productions: 私语[tsuyuu]
and Orient. 私语[tsuyuu]
(2015), a
site-specific performative installation, was commissioned by the Shanghai Duolun
Museum of Modern Art, China for its multi-sensory cultural project, TIME CAPSULE: Allegories of Shanghai (20
June – 13 July 2015), which emanated from the proposition of ‘culture’ as both a complex form of
ecology that
exists and a constantly evolving state of mind that is as organic as our
use of
language.
Orient (2015), inspired by the
multi-layered connotations of ‘mother-of-pearl’ and its physical appreciation in
the context of labour in art making, was commissioned by the Maraya Art Centre
for its current exhibition, أنا[ana]
please keep your eyes closed for a moment (21 October 2015 – 2 January 2016). Although the designs are different
from those in the East, mother-of-pearl is also one of the most important media
used in traditional crafts in the Arab world. ‘Pearl’, written and pronounced
as ‘اللّؤلؤ[rullwa]’ in
Arabic, was once the main source of
wealth in the Gulf region long before the discovery of oil. It also appears as
a sacred symbol in different religions, including Islam, Christianity and
Hinduism. Orient, which explores the
spirit and the body, was produced in collaboration with the mother-of-pearl
craftsman and Korean Intangible Cultural Asset, Son DaeHyun.
