Crafting Space to Talk is an interview with Aya Haidar by Ana Charriere Alvarez de Ron, a second year History of Art student, published by the History of Art department at UCL as part of its equality, diversity and inclusion series. The interviewer introduces Haidar as a Lebanese artist based in London whose socially engaged practice articulates shared stories of womanhood, displacement, migration and invisible labour.
The conversation covers Highly Strung, the monumental embroidered series made one act a day across a year and acquired by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Haidar reflects on craft as a durational practice: so time consuming that it can feel disheartening, then deeply rewarding once complete. She also discusses In Witness Whereof (2018), commissioned for the 21,39 art fair in Jeddah, which looks at contracts and the value placed on migrant labour, and her residency with Deveron Projects in Scotland, which supported the social integration of Syrian refugees.
Towards the end, Haidar describes the shows ahead of her, including Material Power at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, travelling to the Whitworth in Manchester, and a large solo show in Dubai opening in February to coincide with Art Dubai. That exhibition became Battlegrounds at Tabari, a body of entirely new work about womanhood, motherhood and feminism, built on the idea of women as battlegrounds. Aya Haidar is represented by Tabari.
