Balqis alrashed

Balqis AlRashed is a Saudi multidisciplinary and performance artist based in Riyadh- Saudi Arabia. Raised in Beirut for 18 years, she graduated from the American University of Beirut with a BFA in Graphic Design and moved back to Riyadh in 2010. Working with installations, videos, performative spaces, and immersive experiences, the work she does is positioned at the threshold of dichotomies. Balqis’ work draws inspiration from her own displacement, and explores her relationship with the gaze and the power that governs our bodies. Her practice is driven by a fundamental existential dissatisfaction with the way things are, so she acts out what otherwise cannot be expressed in language. Balqis uses her body, the audience, and public space as raw materials and plays on ambiguity and myth-making to uncover overlaps that are otherwise not apparent. Like a game of charades, or a misbehaving child, her work acts out in gestures what cannot be expressed in words.

Because she lived in different places, Balqis felt that the many different systems she was thrown in were fundamentally flawed, her early practice was focused on herself and her relationship to power. Through her own visibility, Balqis’ work constantly examined questions of appropriateness and inappropriateness, and the boundaries of the allowed and forbidden. In her current work, she is moving away from physically embodying the disruption by acts and gestures, into a more analytical approach to the disruption. The disruption now is done through space, myth, and iconography. What is interesting in this shift is that she is now looking at her practice with many more outcomes and possibilities to represent the different manifestations of power. She is still challenging the system, but the gestures are more considerate.

Balqis participated in three residencies, the March Project Residency 2015 at Sharjah Art Foundation and participated in their exhibition with a performative site specific public installation, ‘In Babel’ [2015], AiR at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and participated in their Cities of Convictions exhibition with another performative installation ‘Cities of Salt’ [2017], and Alserkal Residency at Alserkal Foundation, Dubai, and created a series of non-consecutive public performances, ‘Norms of Life’ [2019]. She was also selected as a Nike Ambassador and was featured in their Believe in More global campaign [2017]. In 2016, A video from the series ‘A State of Play’ was featured on Instagram official account, contributing to its global appeal, generating over 5 million views on Instagram alone and was the first Saudi artist to be featured on Instagram’s official account.  Her public Instagram account @balqis_alrashed was eventually terminated due to its excessive visibility in 2018. She is now @notreallybalqis.

In 2021, Balqis was selected to be part of the Delfina Foundation Residency, and is currently in Berlin for a two month art residency at the Berlin Art Institute [2022].