Balqis AlRashed (Saudi Arabia) is a multidisciplinary artist working at the threshold of dichotomies, through installations, videos, performative spaces, and immersive experiences. Her work explores her relationship with control and obedience, and is driven by a curious detachment, subversive docility, impulsive gestures, and a fundamental existential dissatisfaction with the status quo. Through her observations and compliance, she uses her body, the audience, and the public sphere as raw material and play on ambiguity and myth-making to uncover overlaps that are not apparent.

During her residency at Delfina Foundation, Balqis intends to explore communal spaces and food practices within different cultural groups in the city. She will research and explore food through social and economic capital, in combination with how feasts and communal gatherings are transformed into political spaces to gain social agency and practice culinary diplomacy.

Balqis was raised in Beirut, graduating from the American University of Beirut with a BFA in Graphic Design. She has participated in three residencies: the March Project at Sharjah Art Foundation (2015), where she participated in their exhibition with a performative site-specific public installation ‘In Babel’; AiR at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (2017), where she participated in their Cities of Convictions exhibition with a performative installation ‘Cities of Salt’ ; and Alserkal Residency at Alserkal Foundation (2019), where she created a series of non-consecutive public performances, ‘Norms of Life’. She was also selected as a Nike Ambassador and was featured in the ‘Believe in More’ global campaign (2017). A video from the series ‘A State of Play’ was featured on Instagram, contributing to its global appeal, generating over 5 million views on Instagram alone and was the first Saudi artist to be featured on Instagram’s official account (2016). Her Instagram account @balqis_alrashed was eventually terminated due to its artistic expression.

Balqis is currently based in Riyadh.

Artist’s website

Link


Residency season

Summer 2021


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Please note all artist-in-residence biographies are accurate at the time of their residency. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.