2025-09-03 (07) Helsinki. Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. "Deep Fate" Installation (Monira Al Qadiri, 2025)
Oil, its power and destructive force are central themes in Monira Al Qadiri's exhibition. Oil is everywhere - in fuels, plastics, textiles, medicines, cosmetics and construction materials. Modern life is largely buit upon oil. But comfort and prosperity have come at the high price of a planet-wide climate crisis. This exhibition presents sculptures and videos from the past decade by Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri. Her works take their shapes from oil driling equipment and the molecular structures of petrochemicals. Her shiny, colourful sculptures suggest a temptation that is nearly impossible to resist. . The oil theme holds personal significance for Al Qadiri, who grew up near a refinery and experienced the Gulf War as a child. The exhibition looks both to the future and back at the past. lt recalls the pearl-diving industry that flourished in Kuwait before the oil boom, in which the artist's grandfather worked as a singer. The rise of the oil industry brought wealth to small, impoverished Kuwait in the 1950s, but it also marked a rupture in the history of the entire region. Through her art, Al Qadiri seeks to imagine a post-oil future.
2025-09-03 (07) Helsinki. Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. "Deep Fate" Installation (Monira Al Qadiri, 2025)
Oil, its power and destructive force are central themes in Monira Al Qadiri's exhibition. Oil is everywhere - in fuels, plastics, textiles, medicines, cosmetics and construction materials. Modern life is largely buit upon oil. But comfort and prosperity have come at the high price of a planet-wide climate crisis. This exhibition presents sculptures and videos from the past decade by Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri. Her works take their shapes from oil driling equipment and the molecular structures of petrochemicals. Her shiny, colourful sculptures suggest a temptation that is nearly impossible to resist. . The oil theme holds personal significance for Al Qadiri, who grew up near a refinery and experienced the Gulf War as a child. The exhibition looks both to the future and back at the past. lt recalls the pearl-diving industry that flourished in Kuwait before the oil boom, in which the artist's grandfather worked as a singer. The rise of the oil industry brought wealth to small, impoverished Kuwait in the 1950s, but it also marked a rupture in the history of the entire region. Through her art, Al Qadiri seeks to imagine a post-oil future.