When Aya Haidar was ten years old, someone asked her what her mum did for a living. She remembers replying, “Oh, my mum doesn’t do anything, she’s just a mum.” Her dad, who rarely raised his voice, told her he didn’t want to hear her saying that ever again and began listing everything his wife did: taking care of Haidar when she was sick; making sure she was dressed in clean clothes; cooking dinner for her when she came home from school. “He always said, ‘I might be paid for my job, but money isn’t the only thing of value’,” says Haidar. “That, and ‘Your mum’s job is harder work’.”
I’m talking to the Lebanese-British interdisciplinary artist over Zoom ahead of this year’s Abu Dhabi Art, where she’s showing two existing series of work and a new installation. After a foundation course at Chelsea College of Art, Haidar studied at the Slade and went on to do a masters in NGOs and Development at LSE (her work has always been socially and politically engaged, and she wanted to back that up with some theory).
For seven years she ran a charity that worked with refugees in Lebanon. Now a mother of four, she divides her time between her artistic practice and her children. We’re joined by her son Jad, who’s just a month old.
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