Oil is everywhere in our everyday lives –in fuels, clothes, toys, make-up, buildings and roads. We use it to heat homes and the climate. Wars have been fought over it.
Oil’s dual role in generating wealth and causing crises is a central theme in the new exhibition by artist Monira Al Qadiri(b. 1983). The title, Deep Fate, refers to the originsof oil deep in the earth and also to the way that dependence on oiland breaking that dependence are a matter of life and deathfor humankind.
Al Qadiri’s working process is based on research on the cultural history of the Persian Gulfregion. The exhibition featuressculptures and video works from the last decade. Some of them are very large, while the smallest are only a centimetre in diameter. Various sculptures echothe shapes of the blades and the molecular structures of thechemicals used in oil drilling. Al Qadiri’s works are characterisedby iridescent rainbow colours that are reminiscent of oil and the shimmering surface of pearls.
In her video works, the artist often returnstoher childhood experiences. For the child living close to an oil refinery, the industrial structure evoked thoughts of a glowingmetropolis rather than ofenvironmental destruction. Meanwhile, burning oil fields were her first conscious encounter with oil.Al Qadiri’s worksalso contain references to the history of her family. Before the oil boom, one important source of livelihoodin the region was pearl diving, in which her grandfather worked. In the 1950s, the oil industry liftedthe small country of Kuwait out of poverty and into prosperity, and in so doingbrought an endto the pearl-diving industry.“The formation of oil has set a ‘fate’ deeply intertwined with human history and the exploitation of natural resources,” Al Qadiri says of the idea behind her new exhibition.
“Just as the processes of deep time remain unseen but have clearly shaped our environment, the actions of the deep state remain obscured while shaping political and social realities, creating a narrative of extraction, exploitation, and the resulting crises –climatic, political and social.”
The exhibition is curated by Kiasma’s curators Piia Oksanen and Jari-Pekka Vanhala.
Press release from Kiasma
Image: Monira Al Qadiri. Wonder. 2016-18. Photography by Marius Land. Image courtesy of the artist
