Gallery Isabelle
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Viewing rooms
  • News
  • Selected Press
  • Publications
  • Contact
Menu
THE ETERNAL RETURN OF THE SAME
MANAL ALDOWAYAN | CROMWELL PLACE , 2 - 9 June 2021

THE ETERNAL RETURN OF THE SAME: MANAL ALDOWAYAN | CROMWELL PLACE

Past exhibition
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Manal AlDowayan, O Sister, 2021

O Sister, 2021

Tussar silk, acrylic and natural hemp
160 x 195 x 55 cm
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3EO%20Sister%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E2021%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3ETussar%20silk%2C%20acrylic%20and%20natural%20hemp%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E160%20x%20195%20x%2055%20cm%3C/div%3E
Just as The Emerging frames an exuberant individuality against a crushing societal sameness, O Sister (2021) confronts the blanket ‘instruction manual’ mentality of religious injunctions with an individualist feminine energy....
Read more
Just as The Emerging frames an exuberant individuality against a crushing societal sameness, O Sister (2021) confronts the blanket ‘instruction manual’ mentality of religious injunctions with an individualist feminine energy. Modelled on the desert rose—hardened, petal-like crystalline formations occurring in deserts where sand meets salt—O Sister spreads its soft, collapsible, darkly burnished flaps in an ironic embrace. The form evokes some oversized bodily cavity, all multi-layered biological complexity and beckoning openness. Resistant yet refined, the natural silk of the sculpture is printed with instructions penned by religious men determining women’s ‘use’ of their bodies. The inky texts blur on the ridged fabric surface, their legibility confounded by strokes of charcoal. Part of a generation deeply impacted by conservative laws against women in Saudi Arabia, AlDowayan teases out a new tension in O Sister, raising questions about physical emancipation at the very moment the Kingdom ostensibly moves towards greater social freedoms.
Close full details
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
3 
of  4
Back to exhibitions
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Gallery Isabelle
Site by Artlogic
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Twitter, opens in a new tab.
Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Vimeo, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.