18/02/16
Interview: Maha
Malluh
Maha
Malluh (b1959) lives and works in Saudi Arabia and her art is infused with the
culture that surrounds her. Her assemblages of discarded items, found in junk
shops and flea markets, present objects imbued with cultural meaning and
embedded histories. “My inspiration,” she says, “comes from my country, a land
of contrasting images and ideas. Good art forces you to pause, to contemplate
and think harder about your surroundings.”
Currently one of the 14
artists in the Saatchi Gallery’s first all-women exhibition, Champagne
Life, Malluh has covered one of the gallery’s
walls with an assortment of burnt aluminium cooking pots, traditionally used
throughout the Arab world. The title of the series to which the work belongs – Food
for Thought – Al-Muallaqat – makes reference to the pre-Islamic, sixth-century
Suspended Odes or Hanging Poems, traditionally hung in Mecca.
Malluh
spoke to Studio International about the potency of such objects as transmitters
of cultural meaning, her views on gender, and the significance of women-only
exhibitions.
Read the interview here