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DIA BATAL
LINES WITHIN
10 to 31 October 2017
Opening Tuesday October 10 at 6pm
In association with Amman Design Week, Jacaranda Images is proud to present latest works by Dia Batal where she uses Arabic language and text to explore sociopolitical topics with artworks that echo cultural and contemporary concerns.
Translating text into objects and 2D artworks – silk screen prints, works on paper and object in metal, Dia seeks to engage audiences in contemporary issues, in this case, identity and belonging. As with many contemporary Arab artists, forced displacement, relocation and the changing concept of ‘home’ is a major theme which can be often political, but explored more to raise political awareness with audiences.
In this exhibition I am interested in exploring further ideas of home, and taking refuge.
The meaning of place in an age of migration and immigration, of home as an internal orientation.
And the idea of belonging to a place that may no longer exist.
I am also interested in creating artwork that examines the significance of involuntary departures from a homeland. I have also started looking at archived material relating to the above themes, in particular maps such as those of Sykes Picot agreement, which I’d like to use for tracing the shifting landscapes. – Dia Batal
Dia is an admirer of Arabic calligraphy and the traditional art of working with text. Her work responds to her cultural identity in content and aesthetics. Most recently seen in Amman in ‘Do It In Arabic’ at Darat al Funun in 2016, we are delighted to have Dia’s work at Jacaranda Images.
Mahmoud Darwish’s words ‘Be true to yourself wherever you are’ sum up Dia’s philosophy with the exhibition.
The exhibition is part of Amman Design Week being held from 6 to 16 October 2017.
Dia Batal
Dia Batal is a spatial designer working between London and Beirut. She graduated from the Lebanese American University in Beirut with an AA in Fine Arts and bachelor in Interior Architecture. Afterward she completed her Masters in Design, Critical Practice from Goldsmiths, London. Her work is often context specific and enables audience and user to physically engage with it. Dia is interested in the way design objects function as a device that has impact on people lives within public and private space, in relation to its social, cultural and political concerns.
Dia’s work has been shown in solo and collective exhibitions in London, New York, Beirut, Sharjah and Amman. She was invited to participate in London Design Week with an exhibition titled ‘Tracing Landscapes’ at the Mosaic Rooms in 2015 as well as Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial in 2016.
