Obadah Aljefri
TURDPIDO’S POOP BAGGIES (SEA TURTLE: HAWKSBILL, LEATHERBACK AND GREEN TURTLES) ARABIZED, 2022
Archival pigment print on 290gsm Hahnemühle Bamboo Natural Fine Art Paper
10.75 x 16.25 inches

This artwork is part of the award-winning (Non-) Perishable series of gouache paintings that resemble advertising posters which invite viewers to reflect on their lifestyles, buying habits, and their role in actualizing a future for themselves and later generations, individually and collectively. Tying together the advertising trends that gloss over the damaging realities of these goods, (Non-) Perishable demonstrates the careless and shortsighted attitudes that have serious implications on the lives of many generations to come. Individually, each ad ties a specific product to the species directly affected by its production. Piece after piece, the series accumulates to map out a dystopian future that has already begun to materialize.

Obadah Aljefri is a transdisciplinary cultural practitioner and artist whose conceptual practice integrates a range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. Aljefri seamlessly incorporates methodologies from their respective creative professions as artist, art director, art producer, consultant, and an illustrator. Their creative contributions have included exhibitions at The Bronx Council on The Arts (BCA), The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), and the Saudi Art Council (SAC), and Athr Gallery, and art fairs such as Volta Basel. Aljefri has been involved assisting production for Artist Muhannad Shono, with works exhibited at 1st Islamic Arts Biennale, the 59th Venice Biennale, and Art Basel 22’. 

Aljefri’s confrontational and oftentimes satirical works navigate Sapien’s ideologies, pedagogies, semiotics, and examine its histories and futurities. By constituting the self as an avatar, the current body of work explores their own identity as a conduit to an experience of alienation; in a body of work that ruminates the politics of being at the intersection of various contending identity vectors. The work constructs and deconstructs selfhood, belonging, perception, and behavior: blurring the line between what is real and what is mythical through questioning and diving deep into what it means to exist on either side of a marginal relationship within a broader environment. Aljefri’s work challenges societal norms and pressures, inviting viewers to engage with the intricacies of the gaze while nurturing compassion and connection.

www.obadahaljefri.com