Sarah Abu Abdallah

Critical text

In Sarah Abu Abdallah’s (b. 1990, Qatif) visuals, layered images of virtual and real space unfold into a narrative of coexistence. And these spaces are full of signs of digital communication and visual idioms, of Manga drawings, microscopic images, or Google search results. And they often appear in a mundane, private space. What kind of reality are we living in? A reality of very different experiences, of overlapping experiences? A world that is neither a temporal nor a spatial continuum? A world with sharp divisions between the private and the public? Have the new communication technologies brought about a new communal sense of interconnectedness? Abu Abdallah reveals how every form of coexistence brings with it a constant questioning of one’s own categories, conventions, and normative definitions. With the principle of collage in her mixed media drawings, Saudi artist Abu Abdallah pursues a pars pro toto strategy that focuses on the self in a constantly changing environment. Sarah Abu Abdallah appears to carry lightly, almost effortlessly, the weighty baggage of cultural traditions and shifting identities, amid economic, social and political developments. Often employing quizzical humour and a quirky sense of the visual, her work emerges from within her home and surroundings in Saudi Arabia.

Text by Bettina Steinbrügge