Fatma Al Ali, I Picked Up a Coin and Heard a Whisper (detail), 2024
(excerpt)
Beyond Emerging Artists has been shown in prestigious venues both in Hong Kong (at Sotheby’s Maison) and in London (at the Saatchi Gallery). The two other artists with work in the show were Fatma Al Ali, an Emirati artist whose work includes sound art and contemporary sculpture based on insights from archive documentation and oral histories; and Dina Nazmi Khorchid, a Palestinian artist based in the UAE who explores cross-cultural identity and natural processes, specialising in contemporary textiles.
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Al Ali felt equally glad to be reaching a new audience, with her work seen in conversation with that of the other artists. “My practice is all about questioning the way our history is told and recorded,” she says. “So it’s interesting to take it to communities that are far removed from my own.” She emphasises that resources are only part of what it takes to make art. “Part of the work is diligent research, reading archives and then trying to process that information into my art practice.”