Jala Wahid

Working in sculpture, sound, video, text and installation, Jala Wahid explores notions of migration, diaspora and nationhood. The Kurdish-British artist is concerned with the ways Kurdish identity has been shaped through global, local and interregional politics. Deeply symbolic in its materiality and archival structure, her multidisciplinary practice intertwines political and cultural discourses with fiction and personal memory. For example, in her piece Born from and Buried in Baba Gurgur (2018), the artist uses her own body to mould perishable sculptures presented alongside the symbolism of the Kurdish flag, with loud drum music accompanying the installation. Alluding to the power dynamics of the selective recording and remembering of history, and the being of a stateless nation, Wahid’s practice is a nuanced, socio-political ode to her heritage, reclamation and defiance, archival in its own right. ...