Shireen Taweel

Shireen Taweel is currently practicing at the Parramatta Artist Studios in Sydney. Taweel’s practice is rooted in cross-cultural discourse, where local-global dialogues influence her work through the refined processes of metallurgy. Her own cultural heritage within the Islamic Decorative Arts are a source of reference and inspiration in the development of forms and in the application of decorative techniques and consideration of sacred objects. The works partake in a cross-cultural discourse, while the sense of the arcane and shifted structures open dialogue between shared histories and communities of fluid identities.

Taweel’s forms sit in a space between jewellery, sculpture and architecture, where her techniques of making take the traditional art of copper-smithing into a contemporary context. The social conditions of the transnational are key to Taweel’s practice and her enquiry in sacred space through processes of hybridity and transformation. The geometric metal piercings indicate something distinct and inherent about cultural practices that are simultaneously reworked in new contexts. This shift in process reflects conversations around the sensitivities of the migrant experience of transience and how one may transform and make room for different practices simultaneous to echoes of tradition and heritage of origin.

Website: www.shireentaweel.com

Instagram: Shireen_Taweel

Image credit: Shireen Taweel, Tomorrow, InshAllah series (2016-17)