The Making and Breaking of an Icon

University essay from Kungl. Konsthögskolan

Author: Nada Ali; [2021]

Keywords: Iconoclasm; icon; narrative; grief; care; magic; reparation; war.;

Abstract: This essay is an effort to write my thoughts and reflections on my art practice, focusing on the work to-be-realized for my solo show in March 2021 at Galleri Mejan in Stockholm. I’ve had the intention to complement and stabilize my imagined-artwork with my writing, only to realize such a task’s difficulty. Firstly, because language itself can be unstable. Secondly, fear of losing a quality in art that is unstable in its nature. The essay consists of three sections: In the first one, I tell how I think and feel through my art practice. I also propose making space for new knowledge: In my art practice, I lean on magical thinking to stimulate bodily movements.1 I think that we need to balance ourselves between rational thinking and other modes of thinking, and this in-between-space requires continuous negotiations of different kinds. In section two, I explain how I think of images and share how I process them through my work. Then I share stories of entangled images that I’m using as source images in my current work. In the third and last section, I delve into my deep desire to control images. I challenge told narratives and reflect on creative practices of destruction and reparation.

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