Overview

Following a short introduction to his work, Wael Shawky will join Curator Murtaza Vali in a conversation about the vernacular in his work and, hopefully, other regional delights. This event is held in conjunction with Sharjah Art Foundation's upcoming exhibition: Wael Shawky: Horsemen Adore Perfumes and other stories scheduled to open March 13 at SAF Art Spaces.

Examples of the vernacular abound throughout Wael Shawky’s extensive oeuvre: his use of Arabic, and more recently Urdu; his retelling of local fables and regional histories; his use of popular cultural forms ranging from 200 old marionettes to the 1970s German television program Telematch; and, arguably, even his interest in religion, which Shawky, unlike many of his peers, does not shy away from. This use of the vernacular seems strategic, a leveraging of local specificity against the grand narratives of History and the cosmopolitanism of contemporary art discourse, to create hybrid texts that remain stubbornly rooted yet declaratively polyvalent.