Catalogue > At random

Filmed in a neglected expat housing complex in Hawalli, this out of context mirage disorients the familiarity or nostalgia of the space. The multicultural neighborhood vibrates with a multicultural working force who have consciously migrated from their diverse backgrounds to participate in the daily routine designated by a profiting developer. The tiling of the colonnade, as is the tiling of the dress, is reflective of the blurring of these expat cultures to camouflage within the existing- the existing which is not only foreign to them but foreign to the space - creating the out of context "Where am I?" phenomenon. These diverse cultures try to adapt to a "?" culture imposed by another country whilst struggling to identify between pre-imposed ethnic stereotypes and their traditional heritage. The freedom of the body is limited to the disproportion of the imposed cage, irritated within the larger cage of the structure.

Dana Aljouder is a designer, writer, and performance artist who graduated with a Bachelors Architecture from Pratt Institute in 2009. She received the Twinings Scholarship to research allegories of the Medici in Renaissance Art in Florence, and is currently an academic researcher for the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2014. She has also presented her furniture "The Chair" at Higgins Hall Gallery in Brooklyn in 2009 and "Kursi" at the Design Terminal in Budapest in 2013. She has worked with OOS on the winebox installations of the Albert Reichmuth showroom in Zurich. Aljouder has also collaborated with sound artist Bassem Mansour at the Beirut Art Center show "Exposures" and Altofest Performance Festival in Naples in 2012 and 2013.