We hear from Dana Awartini and Sahara Longe, two incredible artists currently displaying their evocative work at Arnolfini (until 28 September). While their respective exhibitions couldn’t be more different in terms of medium, approach and aesthetic, natural synergies still emerge in themes such as personal and cultural memory. We hear from Dana and Sahara and uncover the deeper stories behind their art… (Photos by Lisa Whiting Photography)
Call it divine timing, or the impressive scheduling from the Arnolfini team – which is much more likely – but there are two fantastic reasons to visit the waterside institution this summer. The first has arrived in the form of British artist Sahara Longe’s first institutional solo exhibition. The Other Side of the Mountain is a new body of work from Sahara that travels semi-abstract interior worlds and tells stories in a series of paintings that capture fleeting moments and memories from her personal experience.
Inspired by old family photographs and Doris Lessing’s pivotal feminist novel The Golden Notebook (1962), Longe’s painted compositions vary in scale, from intimate portraits to expansive works, where dreams intersect with reality. The exhibition weaves together memories from her early childhood in Clapham with contemporary reflections on family, changing circumstances and the nature of remembrance itself.
Dana Awartini’s first institutional European solo exhibition complements Sahara’s work and is the second reason to drop whatever you’re doing and flock to Arnolfini. Standing by the ruins, (named after an ongoing series of floor installations and paintings), brings together Dana’s existing works with a major new commission in a poignant exploration of love and loss, destruction and the passage of time.
Dana – a Palestinian-Saudi artist – uses painting, installation, performance, film and textiles to address the physical loss of cultural heritage through the lens of abandoned, destroyed and vanishing places. Working with skilled artisans, Dana honours traditional craft techniques such as darning and adobe building methods to highlight the human act of making and experience of loss. The result is work steeped in historical and visual references from Islamic and Arab art-making traditions that reflects on devastating Middle Eastern conflicts and the ‘architectural modernisation ingrained with colonial legacy’.
Sahara, your paintings explore memory and personal experience. How do you decide which moments from your life to bring into your work?
It’s a real mixture of memories, thoughts or things I see in real life. One of the works Love, again? was inspired by a couple I saw outside a pub talking when I was on the bus, whilst the self-portrait as a young girl was from looking at old photographs and remembering the texture of a heavy velvet dress.
Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook plays a big role in this exhibition. What drew you to that novel, and how has it influenced your process?
I liked the idea that throughout our lives we are in a constant conversation with our past and future selves. That we are who we are by our past experiences, whether it’s your school days or a past failed relationship. I also loved how she hid herself as the protagonist which is something I like to do in my paintings.
Colour appears to carry deep meaning in your work. How has your classical training shaped the way you use colour today?
When I went to school, we were only instructed to use a limited palette of five colours: lead white, raw sienna, yellow ochre, ivory black and vermillion red. When I left Florence, I found it very hard to break away and use more colours. What really got me interested in colour was studying the pallets of other artists I admired, particularly the post impressionists and German expressionists. I found a whole new way of expressing different moods than just through gestures.
Many of your scenes feel like dreamlike snapshots. How do you balance real memories with imagination in your paintings?
A lot of the paintings in the show are based on remembering or fantastising. They are not real events, more thoughts so the shapes appear more abstract.
You’ve said shadows in your work offer possibility rather than darkness. Can you tell us more about what they represent for you?
Some of the paintings are memories of a time gone by. I like to think of the shadow as myself, looking back at the past, looking at it differently, but hidden from the people in the painting.
Below: Sahara Longe’s The Yellow Dress, 2025, Sahara Longe’s works in The Other Side of the Mountain
Dana, how do you express powerful themes like remembering, healing, and letting go through your art, and how personal is that process for you?
It’s not my intention to specifically express these themes, but the nature of the mediums and topics I work with naturally bring these themes out. I think there is a strong healing aspect to historical craft in general just because of the nature of the craft itself – everything is quite slow and meticulous and the repetitive action of doing the same thing over and over again has a sense of catharsis to it. A lot of traditional crafts are rooted in healing and remembering, and of course, the process is very personal to me because I come from a region that is surrounded by displacement, war, conflict and loss, so the desire to heal is kind of in my DNA and my daily existence and this naturally comes through in my work.
You often work with skilled craftspeople and use traditional techniques in your art. Why is that important to you, and how does it add to the meaning of your work?
Firstly, it’s important because I am both a contemporary artist and a craftswoman myself, so I love the process of the handmade and I think as a society we have really lost touch with slow making and everything as traceable to the hand. Now we have Al, we have computers, we have technology that is replacing the human-being and I think this is quite dangerous. I also feel when looking specifically at the Middle East, craftsmen are in danger of becoming extinct by the nature of either displacement due to conflict or the modernisation that’s happening in the gulf countries. I think it’s really important to uphold these people and remember them and support them – craft is still a big part of our day-to-day life and the preservation of that is very important.
Why do you think the act of mending, physically and symbolically, is such a powerful part of your work?
For me it’s a personal and cathartic experience to try to heal and mend something that is destroyed, because as a citizen of the Middle East, there is literally nothing you can do when you see everything being destroyed around you, your cultural heritage being erased and wiped away before your eyes, and it leaves this sense of hopelessness in you. I feel my art of trying to mend or repair something helps with my own personal healing, and I think this is an underlying thread in all of my work.
How does poetry inspire your art, and what role does it play in how you tell stories about memory and loss?
The title of the exhibition comes from a really famous poetry trope started in the Middle East, called ‘ruin poetry’ – in Arabic ‘wuquf ‘ala al-atlal’ – and it is actually pre-Islamic. Since its creation, ruin poetry has inspired so many poets throughout history and through the region because unfortunately ruins are part of our lived reality. Poetry has always played an inspirational role in my work – at university I first learnt about Sufi poetry and I fell in love with Rumi, Hafiz and Shams Al Tabriz and a lot of my other works are titled using this kind of poetry. As well as this, Arabic literature is part of our intangible heritage that I try to preserve through my work.
Below: Left- Let me mend your broken bones, 2023; Right top- Standing by the ruins III, 2025; Right left – I Went Away and Forgot You. A While Ago I Remembered. I Remembered I’d Forgotten You. I Was Dreaming, 2019
Dana Awartini: Standing by the ruins and Sahara Longe: The Other Side of the Mountain continue at Arnolfini until 28 September. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm. Entry is free, with a suggested donation of £5. Both exhibitions are accompanied by a programme of live performances, family and wellbeing workshops | arnolfini.org.uk
