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. 

London

Mexico City

Material Art Fair Mexico

Vienna

Sophie Tappeiner

The Koppel Project

New York City

Lyles & King

Roaming Projects

Los Angeles

Various Small Fires

The Sunday Painter

Pristina

Lambdalambdalambda

Seventeen

Arcadia Missa

Leicester

Two Queens

Royal Academy of Arts

Bristol

Arnolfini

Nottingham

Nottingham Contemporary

Goldsmiths CCA

Jala Wahid

Royal Academy Schools

The Profitless Gift