Abu Dhabi, 1 April 2019: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi’s creative hub for regional artists, will be opening an experimental, process-led space for Al Rabi’a, meaning ‘The Fourth’, led by Emirati visual artist, Shaikha Al Ketbi.

Working over the months of April and May, Al Ketbi will be seeking to cover walls with paintings, add furniture pieces and undertake ritualistic performances. While audiences view her complete work displayed on the walls, Al Ketbi will at the same time produce new pieces in the space during installation.

The space will feature walls, lined with static and moving paintings depicting scenes from the artist’s sub-consciousness and dreams, as she seeks to display fabricated recollections of her past, evoking times from her girlhood and her artistic life.

While Al Ketbi has often previously shown her photography and installation work, this time she will focus on experimenting with her drawing/painting practice through activating this creative space.  In this work, she looks to interrogate the nature of the human mind and human memory, and in particular she seeks to examine the ‘imposter syndrome’, in which individuals doubt their accomplishments and worry that they are a ‘fraud’.

Speaking ahead of the opening of the space, Shaikha Al Ketbi said: “This experimental artistic project is an intensely subjective, personal experience, as I seek to display the nature of my own subconscious thought. Through this effort, I hope to be able to profusely produce work that not only impacts those viewing, but also is impacted by them, and this experimental piece is reflective of a symbiotic approach that I want to bring to my artistic practice.

“I look forward to working out of Warehouse421 over the next two months to build this menagerie of my mind.”

Manager of Warehouse421, Faisal Al Hassan, said: “It is our pleasure to welcome Shaikha to experiment over the subsequent months in the space at Warehouse421. Her artistic practice is an exciting form of contemporary artistic expression, and we look forward to bearing witness to its construction over the next few months.

“At Warehouse421, we seek to offer space for creative practitioners that facilitates their projects and generates conversations which leads to further artistic practice. Through working with emerging artists such as Shaikha, we hope to showcase local and regional talent which can be found here.”

“Of particular interest to our visitors will be the opportunity to interact with Shaikha as she completes this work, and to be able to impact on the development of the artwork in its conception period,” added Al Hassan. “I hope that our audiences are left profoundly touched by this detailed examination of the mind of the artist.”

Al Rabi’a will open on 2 April and will conclude on June 2nd. Visitors to Warehouse421 will be able to view this project, alongside Warehouse421’s most recent exhibition, Nomadic Traces: Journeys of Arabian Scripts, when visiting the project.