The Eternal Return of The Same: Manal AlDowayan

Manal AlDowayan's first solo exhibition at the gallery includes mixed media sculptural works inspired by the intricate form and occurrence of the desert rose. AlDowayan’s practice reimagines the body’s renegotiation with space, here she considers women’s new freedoms in daily life and society in Saudi Arabia. Grappling with these unreconciled and often oppressive histories now being rapidly erased from collective memory, and as they recede from view, AlDowayan creates events that capture their brief passage into disappearance: blooming silk petals imprinted in pious teachings, legs rising to the occasion, unraveling weaves, and messages hidden in rolls of fragile porcelain. The exhibition offers a moment of pause and reflection at a rapidly unraveling time for women. AlDowayan’s artworks together channel an optimism for the future, both emerging and arriving, like the desert rose that materializes out of nature’s alchemy from the least expected of arid desert climates, the artist captures the generative energy of this short-lived phenomenon.