MONIRA AL QADIRI
HOLY QUARTER

SCAD MUSEUM OF ART, SAVANNAH, USA
23 AUGUST – 23 DECEMBER 2024
In HOLY QUARTER, a film and sculptural installation, Monira Al Qadiri explores the blending of myth and purported fact. The film centers on the exploits of British explorer Harry St. John Philby, who journeyed to the “Empty Quarter” of the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s in search of the legendary lost region of Ubar, described in local lore as having been destroyed by divine punishment. Rather than discovering this ancient civilization, Philby encountered remnants of a dramatic meteorite strike, which formed black glass “pearls” from melted sand. Juxtaposed with Al Qadiri’s sculptural evocations of these pearls, the film is narrated by the spirit of the meteor, which warns of impending ecological disaster at the hands of man while offering hope for the future through collective efforts at reversal.
© Photo courtesy of SCAD

FEATURED ARTIST

MONIRA AL QADIRI
Monira Al Qadiri (b. 1983) is a Kuwaiti visual artist born in Senegal and educated in Japan. Spanning sculpture, installation, film, and performance, Al Qadiri’s multifaceted practice is based on research into the cultural histories of the Gulf region. Her interpretation of the Gulf’s so-called “petro-culture” is manifested through speculative scenarios that take inspiration from science fiction, autobiography, traditional practices, and pop culture, resulting in uncanny and covertly subversive works that destabilize mythologies of statecraft and modernization as well as traditional notions of gender. Tracing the delicate ecologies threate...
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