We are delighted to announce that our newest FIND Fellows – Manal Aldowayan, Hala Ali and Maha Alsenan – recently began their Fall 2014 fellowships. For their fellowships, the selected Saudi fellows will research various themes and ideas that explore the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Born and raised in the Eastern Province of Saudi, Manal Aldowayan holds a Masters degree in Systems Analysis and Design. She is a conceptual artist and her work has been exhibited in several international biennials like the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2011, and the Berlin Biennale in 2010. For her FIND Fellowship, she collaborates with NYUAD’s Assistant Professor
May Al-Dhabbagh to build a collective archive of a contemporary history of women within the Saudi society.
Born in Saudi, studied in the UK and the UAE, Hala Ali is an artist and poet whose work deals with text, language, and meaning. She has exhibited in Dubai, Sharjah, Berlin, Istanbul, and Chicago. Hala's poetry, often composed within the forms of spoken word, is direct and argumentative, reflecting on contemporary society and speaking to ideas of female invisibility, human relations, politics and social dogmas. She has performed in Abu Dhabi, London, and Vienna. For her FIND Fellowship, she explores the ability of the medium of the Internet as an effective mode of communication of taboo ideas.
Saudi born and raised, Maha Al Senan is a holder of an MA from PNU and a PhD in Archeology and Art History from KSU, Riyadh. She is an art historian whose studies cover pre-Islamic and contemporary art in Saudi. She has published three books and has a weekly column in Aljazeera Newspaper in which she writes about art and the role of women in the Saudi art scene. She is currently the Executive Director at the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society and a board member in several cultural committees. For her FIND Fellowship, she documents the fast changes in the Saudi art scene in relation to art fairs in the region.
We look forward to introducing you to the Fellows through their ongoing process posts here in the FIND notebook, and – similar to previous Fellows – the results of their research will be presented through a combination of events and a future FIND Journal Issue. Take a look at the Fellowships page to learn more about Manal, Hala, and Maha through their bios, and keep an eye on their progress throughout the Fall through the following hashtags:
