My ideas have been generated from the Culture Shock assignment from our Summer break. This was from an exhibition we stumbled upon in Venice.
'A Future of Promise Contemporary Art' from the Arab World
 Walking into this exhibition I didn't notice the doves hanging above our heads. They were suspended high in the magnificent pop up gallery. ‘Suspended Together’ |
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At first I just thought how stunning and decorative the Doves looked.
But reading the description I began to understand why the Doves were all in the same static position.
The transcript
decals on the fibre glass Doves where copies of permission documents allowing
a Saudi woman to travel.
Every woman had to be authorised by a male guardian.
These Doves held the copied documents from girls/women from the age of 6 months to 60 years.
The participants had been approached by the artist they were leading female
figures in the Arab world such as journalist’s, engineers, artists, doctors.
In
the word of the artist “regardless of age and achievement, when it comes to
travel, all these women are treated like a flock of suspended doves” Manal
Al-Dowayan (Saudi Arabia, 1973)
This exhibition moved me to tears and made me realise how
lucky, as women, we are in our world.
