About
How many Squirrels Has Iran Arrested on Suspicion of Spying? It’s a difficult one, but its a question I often ask (in my pub quizzes). At the heart of my practice is the question ‘How can I open up who and how people engage with varied global, social and political issues, in accessible ways?’ My answer is through play, humour and participation, making works which become entry points for dialogues. I use recognisable playful formats within contemporary popular culture, from quizzes, to mini golf, board games to auctions, so people can have fun experiences. Site, context and audience are integral to my work. A recent work, Putting A Hole In the Wall , epitomises my approach: it is a fully playable mini golf hole, originally commissioned for the 56th Venice Biennale as part of Doug Fishbones Leisure Land Golf in 2015. It is fun, participatory and political.
In Nov-Dec 2020 I had my first solo show in the US, at the CUE art Foundation, curated by Naeem Mohaiemen.
Here is some more info, about my exhibition at CUE.
Click here to see more images.
Here is a link to my catalogue.
Dina Ramadan wrote this wonderful review of my work, on Art Agendas.
You can read an article in the Guardian about my work.
You can read this lovely review of my work here, by Avleen Grewal
I often work with experts in any given field, and my main work for my solo show Other forms of Regulation and Control used Thermo-hygrographs; machines used by art conservators. Over 6 months I spoke with 3 art conservators, Sharra Grow, Jakki Godfrey and Kate Wight Tyler, which you can read about in Oct/Nov 2020 edition of News In Conservation pg 30-35 here.
You can see a video of artist Naeem Mohaiemen speak about some of my work that was at Manchester Art Gallery here, as part of the group exhibition Speech Acts from 2019.
I have both a solo and a duo practice ( YARA + DAVINA). We are currently touring our ambitious large scale public art work; Arrivals & Departures, whilst working on 4 other commissions for 2021/2022.
You can read an essay by Nat Muller here, which she wrote for my catalogue, for my first major touring solo show ‘The Current Situation’, commissioned by the New Art Exchange toured to Gallery Oldham and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
I’m represented by the gallery La Caja Blanca, Spain. I was an associate artist with Artsadmin between 2013-2016, and I am a British Council Artist Fellow.
Here are two articles about my practise:
Contemporary Practice Magazine
And you can hear my talk at Tate, as part of ‘Altermodern Manifesto: The Great Exhibition with Yara El Sherbini’.
I received her MA from the Slade, UCL. Recent commissions include Roadmap For Peace, and Operation Brexit, both for Now Play This, Somerset House, and Dear Deidre for Venice Agendas. Artist in Residences include Hayward Gallery, (London) and ZKM, Germany. Group shows include Modern Art Oxford, The David Roberts Art Foundation (London), The RCA (London) Lombard-Fried Projects (New York), Arnolfini (Bristol), National Portrait Gallery (London), Tate Britain (London), IKON gallery (Birmingham), CCCB Museum (Barcelona), South London Gallery, BALTIC (Gateshead), LWL-Industrial museum, (Germany), Mostyn Gallery (Wales), and Palazzo Papesse (Siena), National Maritime Museum, (London), Art Dubai (Dubai), Centre d’Art Contemporain (Geneva) and Palazzo Papesse (Siena) amongst many other international, national venues and festivals.