Berlin Mitte | ArtRegion: Berlin, Mitte

Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery

Afifa Aleiby: Rivers Converging

10. Juni – 23. Juli 2022

A woman stands between the reeds of a river clutching her child to chest. We see her as she glimpses over her shoulder, moments before she lays the child into a basket and pushes him downstream. The full moon hangs behind a low mist, casting a strange half light across the scene that feels both furtive and dreamlike. Are we viewing the painted memory of a real escape? Or an imagined one? Rivers Converging, Afifa Aleiby’s second solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery presents a singular collection of paintings that explore notions of place and temporality. Drawing on personal memories, collective histories, social and political regimes, artistic movements and cultural identities, Aleiby creates highly compelling compositions that unravel deeper questions around how we represent subjective experience and form emotional connections.

Born in Iraq in 1952, the artist moved to Russia (back then, the Soviet Union) to study monumental art. On the completion of her studies, she found herself unable to return home due to political conflicts and moved first to live in Italy and then Yemen, before finally settling in the Netherlands where she still resides. In each place, she found herself drawn to the rivers, as a symbol of fluidity and renewal as well as a site of familiarity. ‘The water is constantly in movement, constantly changing and producing something new. To me, it became like a symbol of cultural exchange,’ she says.