The artists Zahrah Alghamdi and Muhannad Shono will present their works and processes, resulting from their artists-in-labs residencies at Eawag – the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Zurich. During 3 months, they worked on their art projects and researched on the ecology of alpine and drinking water. At the exhibition opening, the artists and scientists will introduce their work and collaborative exchange.
Zahrah Alghamdi grew up in south-western Saudi Arabia where she was surrounded by traditional domestic architecture with artistically decorated rooms. Her art practice is inspired by memories of places related to her childhood. She draws on the idea of ‘embodied memory’ and experiments with translating memory and the feeling of place into spatial installations. Gesture and the act of ‘creating’ are central to her practice.
As a member of the Stream Ecology Group (Department of Aquatic Ecology), Alghamdi has been accompanying and observing scientists on environmental sampling and field data collections. The artist’s personal experience and observations in this landscape inspired her to respond with her own gestures and develop minimal and poetic sculptural interventions on site.
http://www.zahrahalghamdi.com
From an early age, Muhannad Shono created comic books in which he incorporated twisted storylines, fictional worlds and drawing. As a naturalized Saudi citizen to Syrian parents of Chechen and Karachay-Cherkessian descent, Shono addresses themes of displacement, migration and identity throughout his work. He often works with ink and paper, incorporating sculptural, animated and acoustic elements.
During his residency at the Department of Environmental Microbiology, Muhannad Shono has been well and truly diving into the world of bacteria whilst working with the Drinking Water Microbiology Group. In the course of his investigations at the microscopic level, Muhannad discovered an organism he claims is full of new ideas, “it’s a behavioural organism that originates from within our internal microbiome, a physical manifestation of a human behaviour or need”, he said. The secret behind his claim will be revealed at the private viewing for the “Artists in Labs” exhibition.
http://muhannadshono.com