From Shattered Ruins, New Life Shall Bloom

2023
  • Participatory Action that took place on May 22 2023 at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York

  • This performance is a physical representation of a call to solidarity. It is also an attempt at highlighting the importance of understanding what solidarity means when it comes to looking at cultures that are different from our own.

     

    In the artwork From Shattered Ruins, New Life Shall Bloom I address ideas that revolve around the “othering” of feminist movements, the fragmentation of action and the need for a multipolar approach when it comes to helping women and girls around the world.  

  • Through the form, images, and the participatory action of the artwork, I de- and re-construct this idea to better serve...

    Through the form, images, and the participatory action of the artwork, I de- and re-construct this idea to better serve its purpose. This artwork does not represent a solution, but it is an action that encourages deeper thinking about why do we see each other so differently.
    The artwork is activated through the action of the participating audience. After spending some time observing the artwork and the images and the texts imprinted on small porcelain rolls that resemble paper, the participants are invited to crush the artwork.

  • In this act of crushing and leaving nothing legible behind I am inviting the audience to start rethinking old models and to remind everyone that the power to change is in our hands. In addition, this action occurs in the setting of a museum that is devoted to preserving art. This can also help us to reexamine the system of preservation and its fragility.
  • In the end we would have collectively turned individual scrolls, their texts and images, into broken piles of porcelain pieces....

    In the end we would have collectively turned individual scrolls, their texts and images, into broken piles of porcelain pieces. The words have lost their power and their meanings intermingle and fade.

  • Middle Eastern Circle Presents: Manal AlDowayan: From Shattered Ruins, New Life Shall Bloom, May 22, 2023, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photo: Midge Wattles ©️ Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.