Angels in Purgatory
Damned to the Ephemeral by Zayn Qahtani
A brand new interview with Bahraini artist Zayn Qahtani 🧚‍♀️ her practice explores ancient cultures and nature’s diverse ecosystems, scroll down for more đźŚ
Addy: Zayn, thank you so much for joining me! What is your earliest memory of art making?
Drown Into You by Zayn Qahtani
Zayn: I was maybe around 3 or 4 years old, lying down on the living room floor, attempting to draw the perfect five-point star. I had no idea how to connect the lines in the perfect combination that would reproduce the mystical star shape that I was so intrigued by. It must have been about an hour, testing endless combinations before finally (and by complete fluke) I had conjured up the perfect five-point star.
Addy: I love that! You’re currently based between Manama (Bahrain) and London, how has this shaped your practice?
Zayn: The history and culture of Bahrain has massively influenced my practice - folk tales from the ancient Dilmun civilisation were told to us from our youth, and diving deeper into these stories has unlocked narratives that feel extremely relevant to my own life’s unraveling. Moving to London has definitely generated a shift in my work, too - it feels more direct, intimate, personal.
Addy: For sure. Your body of work explores ancient cultures and nature’s ecosystems, why did you decide to explore these themes?
Zayn: I feel like it was less of a decision on my behalf and more of an intuitive knowing - ever since I was a child, I was absolutely enamored with archaeology. My parents would gift me these little archeologist sets - precious stones, ammonites, and toy fossils waiting to be unearthed from these massive rocks. It’s so kinetic, so sensual - there’s so much to feel and explore with your body in nature that can then be translated into the visual realms. I feel like the people from the ancient cultures I am drawn to - mostly the Dilmun civilisation and greater Sumeria - approached their everyday tools and objects with the same thoughtful reverence. Everything was imbued with spirit because it was a collaborative effort with the natural world.
In the Bath by Zayn Qahtani
Addy: Totally, there’s such a strong presence of spirituality in your work. Your practice spans painting, drawing, and sculpture, what can you tell me about these mediums?
Zayn: In my own practice, drawing is the pulse of the creative body. It is the breath that animates.
Sculpture has been a way to expand upon my drawings in a way that is more abstract - a way to alchemize an image into votive, to blow it up, to worship it, to allow it to exist in a sacred context. Sometimes ironically, sometimes not.
Addy: Your sculptures really offer a sense of continuity, which I love. Who are your biggest artistic influences?
Zayn: The unnamed Sumerians who built the goddess temples, wrote love poems to Ishtar, made the offering vessels, laid the carnelian and lapis lazuli, fired the ritual jewellery.
Addy: There’s something so poetic about the Mesopotamian deities and their connection to the sun, sea, and the moon. Your new solo show Angels in Purgatory explores ideas of destruction, resurrection, and rebirth through stories of the Nephilim, what do you hope to communicate?
Zayn: As daunting as it is to explore the innermost workings of your mind, as terrifying, unclear, psychedelic, and uncanny as it can get - it is so very healing. It is so very healing to explore the parts of you that inherently exist but are swept under the rug. It is so liberating to bite into life’s ripe flesh and explore all that it has to offer, rather than what is told to you is on offer. The pilgrimage from the conscious to the subconscious requires many births, deaths, and rebirths to get to a place where you realize it’s all cyclical, it’s all different facets of the same spiral.
Addy: Amazing, harnessing the power to heal from within is challenging but so rewarding. Can you describe your creative process?
Zayn: My practice is heavily research based - a new body of work will usually begin with a single thought - and then I will spend the majority of my time doing things that encourage it to breathe outside of the studio. Reading books, visiting museums, having conversations, living, compiling it all into notes and anecdotes, photographs and drawings, until some semblance of what this thought wants to exist as manifests. It feels like patchwork, sewing these lived experiences into this massive blanket, and then living underneath it for a while and seeing what crawls out (ha).
Addy: You’ve adopted such a holistic approach to art making <3 nature is a huge part of your work, as you often hand-make your own paint using plants and minerals, and recently amethyst crystal pigments, what is the inspiration behind this?
Touch (An Absence of Feeling) by Zayn Qahtani
Zayn: The moment I realised I could work with nature in this intimate way was after spending the better half of a year living in Whitchurch, a magical small town in Hampshire. Whitchurch’s rivers run over a chalk basin, and you get these little white stones with amazing pigment. I started to go “pigment-hunting” - sometimes I’d find nothing, but then other times I would find little chunks of red, grey, green that could also be used as pigments, and that’s where it all started.
Addy: Honestly, incredible! What do you like about your work?
Zayn: The process of making it!
Addy: How is your personality reflected in your work?
Zayn: I have experienced a lot of loss. I almost feel like grief, lamentation, and yearning exist so quintessentially in my personality that it spills into everything I do, including my practice. I have come to realize that these aspects of life are not some scary, untouchable, shadowy aspects of self, but rather places that can be lived in, fully experienced without judgement, and if you’re brave enough, even celebrated.
Addy: So true, loss is such a major part of the human experience, and should be embraced.
Okay, so at the end of interviews, I like to do something called a rapid fire round 🔥🔥 here we go! Paintings or ceramics?
Zayn: Paintings.
Addy: Landscape or still life?
Zayn: Landscape.
Addy: Sun or moon?
Zayn: Moon.
Addy: Dawn or dusk?
Zayn: Dawn.
Addy: Fire or water?
Zayn: Water.
Addy: Order or chaos?
Zayn: Chaos! (we stan)
Addy: Angels or demons?
Zayn: Absolutely both.
Addy: Introvert or extrovert?
Zayn: Introvert.
Addy: Calling or texting?
Zayn: Texting.
Addy: Do you believe in ghosts?
Zayn: Yes!
Addy: Last song you listened to?
Zayn: Woe by Shygirl.
Addy: Such a great song. Thank you so much Zayn!! <3
For more from Zayn, check out her first ever solo show at Vitrine Gallery in London!