Booth P13 - Positions sector
Sabrina Amrani is proud to present the solo project Watch Before You Fall, by Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan, for the positions sector of Art Basel in Miami Beach 2019.
Watch Before You Fall is a statement directed at women as they enter the public sphere in Saudi Arabia today. These words carry a prediction that anticipates an act before it happens; a prophecy based on the inference of having no control over the fate of their next step — where women are asked to "watch" as they fall.
In this collection of artworks AlDowayan examines the imagery and titles used on the covers of books written by men for women: books that claim to help guide women as they exit their private spaces and enter a public sphere that, according to the authors, belongs to men. On these book covers, women are often portrayed as translucent mute silhouettes and men represented as predator animals. The images are cloaked with fabric in the form of curtains eternally floating in the breeze, dense wood Mashrabiyas or a single flower standing delicately poised, waiting to wither away.
These books are slowly disappearing from shops and bookstands across the country. New laws in Saudi Arabia have banned rhetoric against women in an attempt to create a safer space for both genders to engage. Today women are entering the public space with enthusiasm and courage. Have they reconciled with their past? Are they allowed to forget? In Watch Before You Fall the artist investigates the symbols on the covers of these books and their relationship to fear and control: their fragility and their power.
With a clear and strong message, the whole presentation and what it addresses is relatable to a current worldwide phenomena where women rights are being revisited and re-debated after discovering that questions we thought were sorted out, specially in the West, are far from being resolved.