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Through her multidisciplinary practice, Dana Awartani addresses the physical loss of cultural heritage through the lens of abandoned, destroyed and vanishing places.

Dana Awartani is a Palestinian-Saudi artist who lives and works between New York and Jeddah. Through her multidisciplinary practice she addresses the physical loss of cultural heritage through the lens of abandoned, destroyed and vanishing places. Working across painting, installation, textiles, performance and film, she draws attention to both the human act of making and human loss, reflecting upon the ravages of conflict within the Middle East and architectural modernisation ingrained with colonial legacy.

Named after an ongoing series of floor installations and paintings, Standing by the Ruins presents three key moments: remembrance, healing and forgetting. Each work suggests a shifting relationship with the present and simultaneously with what is absent, rooted within a practice which Awartani describes as being as much about the story of how it is made as the finished work. Throughout, she honours traditional craft techniques – from darning to adobe building methods – working with skilled artisans and using locally sourced materials in work steeped in historical and visual references from Islamic and Arab art-making traditions.

Dana Awartani: Standing by the Ruins is presented in collaboration with Arnolfini, Bristol.