In Rania Jishi’s “Dinner Is Served” , statements such as “Shut your mouth” adorn hand-painted ceramic plates.
While the table is symbolic of nurturing or welcoming, the arrangement is uncomfortable. Shattered, unglazed, and unfinished plates are meant to communicate rejection or surrendering to the oppressed.Jishi’s installation is one of the 26 artworks currently on display at Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse421, an arts and design center dedicated to showcasing and supporting regional talent.
In her experience of working as an artist in the region, Safwan has come across women who do not relate to Orientalist ideas of feminism because of the stigma that the label carries. Instead, the curators use “womanhood” as an approachable idea to operate with and also to explore the coming-of-age experiences of young women in the region.
AlAgroobi explains how they have attempted to create an intersectional exhibition that recenters the understanding of womanhood and justice for all marginalized groups in a regional context. “When we talk about spaces, women dominate private and domestic spaces and men dominate public spaces, but that may have nothing to do with being ‘oppressed.’”