Diaspora
Diaspora
By Rayya Nizar Salim
In Artworks
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Item details:
▸ Features: Handmade Unique Piece▸ Materials: Metal Mix Wood
▸ Art technique: Embossed Metal Acrylic Painting
▸ Dimensions (cm): 30.0 x 1.65
▸ Net Weight (kg): 5.0
Embossed Metal Sheet, Housed in a Dried Palm Branch with Acrylic Paint.
"Diaspora" captures narratives of movement and themes of family and keeping it all afloat. and the role of the women in keeping it together. Some contemporary traumas and wounds that are held inside gave birth to this work that rings of the womb. This gave rise to the figures each with its own story coming together attempting to convey themes of exile and movement.
The process of making this work involved some found cycled material, like the palm (Nkhla in Iraqi) combined with Acrylic paint and metal. The metal sheets with embossing cut and shaped reside in and are held together by the palm tree that floats them to safety.
About Rayya Nizar Salim
Rayya Nizar Salim is a self-taught Beirut-based Iraqi/German multimedia artist. From an early age, Rayya was surrounded by her paternal family's artists and thinkers, the Salim family. As she moved with her family around the world, she watched her father painting and sculpting being surrounded by artists, she learned artistic techniques and practices that inspired her and later were incorporated into her art.
A Mother of three, she worked in Kuwait, Jordan, and the UAE at the UNHCR and Swedish Embassy. After retirement, Rayya has dedicated her time to the arts. In 2019, with her Lebanese husband, she moved to Lebanon, where she works from her Studio in Mar Mikhael.
Rayya works with different media, metal sheets, acrylic painting, clay, cloth, and wire, as well as incorporating ancient craftsmanship, weaving, macrame, block printing, and metal embossing in her art. The artist’s interpretation of the complex histories of her home and adopted countries, Iraq and Lebanon, are woven together using images, childhood memories, ancient mythology, and folklore.
Rayya has participated in the following collective art exhibitions: 2017 - Cultural Art Exhibition at The Iraqi Embassy in Abu Dhabi - Eclectic Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi 2018 - Cultural Art Exhibition at the Iraqi Consulate – Dubai 2022 - Into the Light – Art for Change, Hamra Beirut 2023 - Brain Food Art Exhibition, La Maison Des Artistes Gallery, Beirut 2023 - Art Her Way Exhibition, Kulturnest, Beirut, 2024.