COLLECTION: Alina El Assadi

Alina El-Assadi (1999, Kyiv) is a Ukrainian-Palestinian artist that is based in Sharjah. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Sharjah and Masters in Fine Arts degree from Kingston University in London. Her practice develops from her backgrounds and training in photography and installation where she explores the intersection between fictive and non-fictive narratives based on history in the United Arab Emirates. Her current practice now revolves around photography, sculpture, printmaking, installation, and moving image with the exploration of her identity and the theme of belonging as the main topics. Her previous and current practices are united in the persistent presence of the concept of land, her identity, and the mixed use of fiction and non-fiction in her artistic narration.

Artwork statement

Served Dry

The first part of the work consists of embroidered text taken from various media sources about the occupation in Palestine and Ukraine. The phrases—often satirical or sarcastic—reflect how people turn to dark humor to process trauma. By carefully selecting and stitching these quotes, the artist critiques the absurdity of occupation, and the surreal nature of living through these events.

The second part of the work takes a more abstract approach. Here, the artist traces and sutures both natural and imagined lines on different melons, reflecting the exhaustion that comes from constantly consuming and searching for information about the occupation— ‘informational fatigue.’ The different melons, mended in various ways, represent what the artist refers to as 'invisible borders'—a reference to internationally unrecognized annexed areas that have been imposed through power and that differ from historically agreed borders and the trauma that comes with it.