Rashed AlShashai (b. 1977) is a Saudi artist who works with found objects and appropriated imagery as a conceptual means of identifying the signs of the everyday, creating what he describes as a ‘semantic field’ through which philosophical questions, primarily the purpose of human existence and the functions of society, can be explored. With playful forms, he seeks to engage
viewers with the signifiers of the mundane in order to facilitate a consideration of what might otherwise create tension. This includes the omnipresence of media, a global descent into superficiality, and the growing epidemic of apathy that has come to
define modern life. AlShashai has been widely exhibited in the Gulf and abroad, including at Desert X AlUla (2020); Palais de Tokyo for Saudi Cultural Week in Paris (2019); 21,39 Jeddah Arts (2018, 2017, 2016); The Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. (2018); Winter at Tantora, AlUla (2018); the Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah (2017); and The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Utah (2017).
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