Born 1983 Dakar, Senegal
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Through sculpture, installation and video, Monira Al Qadiri has been exploring the historic and aesthetic connections between oil and pearls, two disparate industries in the Gulf that have interconnecting histories. Both require laborious extraction and are associated with wealth and status. A major source of livelihood for the Gulf region for centuries, the pearling industry and its rich cultural traditions declined rapidly following the discovery of oil in the 1900s and the development of mass-produced pearls in Japan. Now nations such as Kuwait are preparing for a post-oil future, and Al Qadiri suggests comparisons with the historic waning of the pearling industry. Beautifully executed with seductive surfaces, Al Qadiri’s works subtly comment on the intersections between commerce, culture and labour.