Nadia Waheed - Heavy Bend: London

Gallery 1957, London, is delighted to present its first solo exhibition by Nadia Waheed (b. 1992, Saudi Arabia), running September 2^nd – October 6^th, 2022. This exhibition, titled Heavy Bend, will feature entirely new works by the artist, all produced in 2022 and during a time of compounded personal tumult, resulting in a collection that excavates the psychic and spiritual maelstrom many have experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic and related crises.

 

The title of the exhibition references an acutely resonant experience for those who have endured the tribulations of the present moment, or any challenge. Heavy Bend marks how one must twist and contort under immense pressure but cannot afford to break under the strain. The works in this exhibition will be achingly familiar to any who have experienced seemingly insurmountable circumstances but whisper “I just have to make it through.” Crisis asks profound questions of us – what it means to be inter-connected, to be responsible for the lives of others, to find ways to persevere through exhaustion and depletion. These questions become particularly significant for women, who are called upon to perform care for all others, at the expense of themselves. The female figures in these paintings reference this uniquely gendered burden of care, asking what it means to have to continually draw from an emptying well to replenish others. Waheed’s paintings interrogate the personal conflict she experienced between an artistic self devoted to her creative practice and a relational self that bears the commitment to care for others, a human drama all social beings experience in the tension between the self and the communal. These works offer an evocative visual language for exploring fiercely personal and timely questions, creating space for meditation and catharsis.

 

The paintings in Heavy Bend follow a narrative flow, guiding the viewer through the emotional, psychic, and spiritual journey of the artist. Eschewing reason, logic, and empiricism as the only way to experience the world, these paintings dive into the fantastical. Surreal figures hang from, sprawl across, and float in celestial landscapes, symbolising the interior and cosmic dimensions of the themes Waheed explores. The viewer is invited into a sensational world of deep and subtle emotions, which illustrates what it means to be a keenly sensing and feeling being suspended in the drama of life. These figures – unmistakably self-portraits, which is the artist’s oeuvre – appear bound together by string or cords in powerful scenes of tethering. These binds offer a subtle way for Waheed to discuss her racial identity as a South Asian, signifying the cultural obligations of marriage, service, loss, and mourning that mark a woman’s role in traditional society. Speaking to the internal and social, material and spiritual, personal and collective, this exhibition responds to some of the most pressing concerns of our times, inviting reflection on what it means to live in relation to ourselves, our work, and others.