Ahead of her work at The Art Gallery at NYUAD, Moza Almatrooshi unpacks her inspirations, feminism and more this International Women’s Day
An artist and chef coming from a creative family meant constant stimulation for Moza Almatrooshi. Juxtaposing the physical and psychological best of it all manifested into a thriving career in the arts, empowering her to combine the best of her interests to create art that moves you to thought.
It was through art that she discovered her interest in themes around the politics of food. Ever the perfectionist, she then pursued culinary school to become a professional chef, leading to a seamless blend of both worlds to explore the semantics around food one way or another.
The latest showcase of the same is her upcoming exhibition at ‘In Real Time’, the spring exhibition at the prestigious Art Gallery at NYUAD. A part of her ongoing work titled ‘The Alphabetics of the Baker’, the exhibit seeks to reveal the movement of bakers in the real world and thereby the journey.
“It’s specifically to look at trying to create a language out of movements in commercial kitchens, especially to look at the various communities in the UAE that have their own bakeries and sweet shops. I’ve visited those to see how people move as they make those very specific desserts and sweets,” she explains.
Shedding light on how it all transpired, she adds, “And so when Maya got in touch with me, I found it very refreshing, the idea of the exhibition also being something that evolves. And so every time you would visit the exhibition, you know, something would have been added or something live would take place. I liked this idea of a living, breathing exhibition.”
To maintain the authenticity of it all, Moza has worked with farmers, beekeepers and more while adding her own expertise as a chef to the table. Her network continues to include botanists or anyone within the food and farming space to accurately relay their stories.
While the intersection of food and art may not be a novel idea, it is the non-binary representation of it all that Moza aims to champion.
“I was first interested in art, but also then in land. As I got more interested in food, I realised it was also a metaphor I could use in my art. A lot of people understood the symbolism of food, because food is one of the most urgent themes of our lifetime. Through it I was also able to then introduce themes of climate, the environment and how people work with food outside of kitchens.”
“In agricultural spaces, for instance, how people use food. Generally people tend to romanticise food as something that brings cultures together. But it also can be weaponised, and I wanted to explore how food systems can be both empowering and oppressive. It’s not one of those binaries of good or bad, oppressive or liberating,” she says.
As one of the more prominent figures on the artscape in the UAE and Middle East at large, Moza has plenty to opine on the empowering of women in these spaces. Having lived most of her life in Sharjah, she was able to firsthand witness change for the better, as well as the factors that effected it.
“I think a lot of the big industries are still male dominated. But I have to say in the UAE, in particular, the art industry has been, if not balanced, seen a lot of strong female presence. And that has a lot to do with the ecosystem where education is reinforcing us (women) to be in the arts. NYU has its first postgraduate arts program, and before I was part of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship. Around a decade ago, I was able to actually came back and become a teaching fellow for two years,” she says, underlining the critical need for education and access without which, we might easily have been discussing a different scenario.
As someone not represented by a gallery and largely working outside the commercial space, Moza continues to be an inspiration to aspiring artists regardless of gender. Through working across the globe and exploring diverse means to create art, she stands as a testament to the fact that there isn’t one cookie cutter way to be a successful artist.
Is it intentional then, the attempt to empower women and feminism as a whole through art?
“Although I do identify as a feminist, I think my type of feminism is one that pulls everyone, women and men to think about all of it together. I think I’m more known for talking about urgent themes in food and climate, and this is what I get more approached for. That is what I hope to empower people about, information about what’s happening right now through the lens of food and climate. And even when I’m being very romantic about it, or very fictional, or very metaphorical and conceptual, I still feel like I poke at it from from a sense of urgency. And so that I hope is empowering really, for everyone.”
Currently working on a fictional ‘Letter of Intent’ that will sit at The Alphabetics of the Baker, Moza intends to create a language through the fluid gestures of her work for people to understand and activate.
When questioned on the inspiration behind choosing to represent this world, she speaks of the cyclical nature of creating bread. Through the movement of the hands creating the letters, she’s able to fully capture the circular nature of creating this body that goes back into the human body.
And more importantly, she addresses the freedom that comes from creating such work.
“I think it very important to realise that we don’t have these spaces to fully, fully express. But I’m hoping through this work, it kind of gives us hope, that if if the language we are using right now is not enough for us to fully express ourselves, we can always come up with a new language.”
Follow Yalla – Abu Dhabi Life for all the latest news across the capital and beyond
