03 Dec 2012

Vanessa Hodgkinson: Where Are You Now? at Project D, Dubai

Capital D Studio and Project D are pleased to announce Vanessa Hodgkinson's first solo show in Dubai, entitled Where Are You Now?. Curated by Maisa Al Qassimi, and looking at examples from the past seven years of the artist's practice, this show provides a unique opportunity to experience Hodgkinson's bold investigations into Orientalism and the influence of Islamic art on her practice.
At the heart of the show, Where Are You Now? is a work on mirror that aims to draw a direct line of communication between two artists: one who is young and emerging and one who is well established. Based on You Are Still Here (1994), Mona Hatoum has long been an important influence on Hodgkinson's work, and in this sense the mirror work is a form of homage.
The intention of the piece is to raise an important question about development of the self; being able to look critically into one's own reflection, or indeed past one's own reflection to see what lies beyond. Whilst Hatoum's original piece suggests a sense of permanence and stability in a world that is concerned with displacement and diaspora, Where Are You Now? comes from a place of solidity and certainty, but aims to destabilize, re-evaluate and create movement towards change.
For this reason this work is at the very centre of this attempt to evaluate Hodgkinson's artistic practice up to this point.


About the artist
Born in 1982, Vanessa Hodgkinson lives and works in London. She received a B.A. in History of Art from Cambridge University in 2003. Hodgkinson continued her education in Kuwait from 2003-2004 and studying Arabic at Kuwait University. She then returned to the U.K. to study the technical practices of traditional Islamic art at the Prince's School of Traditional Art. At present she is completing an M.A in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Art & Design.
Hodgkinson has exhibited her work in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, the Palestinian Territories, Israel and Qatar. Hodgkinson has been recognized on an international level, holding residencies at Christ's College Cambridge, Leighton House Museum, the A.M Qattan Foundation, and received the Sheikh Zayed Prize for Children's Literature (for illustration) in 2009. Her work is held in private collections around the world.

About Project D Gallery
Project D Gallery is a collaboration between Capital D Studio and curator, Maisa Al Qassimi to incorporate a number of art shows, education endeavours and published projects annually. Where Are You Now?. is an inaugural exhibition for Project D Gallery. The shows will be hosted both at Capital D Studio and at locations around the UAE focusing on Middle Eastern art, culture and the social climate through various mediums including and highlighting photography, video, and digital media.