#63 Maitha Abdalla

Maitha Abdalla on folklore, guilt and the landscapes she paints. At her grandmother’s house in Khorfakkan, Maitha Abdalla remembers waking to the call to prayer, her grandmother’s voice and a rooster she had been taught could see angels. Years later she gave the bird a companion in her paintings. The rooster and the pig might fight, hold a conversation or become intimate. Both, she says, are her. Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar met the Emirati artist in Paris in October 2026 to record The Art Bystander Podcast. Abdalla works across painting, sculpture, film and performance. One of eleven children, Abdalla recalls the drawing of a doll that first made her feel seen, the anger she carried as a teenager and the bargain she struck with her father to travel alone at eighteen. A year in London and several months teaching art and English in Turkey gave her time to write about the characters she remembered from home. Abdalla explains why she writes a character before deciding whether to paint it or give it a part in a performance. She describes working on a canvas spread across the studio floor, applying paint with her fingertips while one song plays on repeat. We discuss the women she grew up among, the masculine qualities of some of her female figures, and her interest in what guilt can do to a body. She explains why sadness makes her want to write, and why she hesitates when asked if she goes looking for it. A comparison between Swedish forests and the Gulf desert prompts her to consider why a family might need a story to live with the loss of someone who went missing. The conversation turns to the imagined forests Abdalla began seeing before sleep on an earlier stay in Paris. Those landscapes are now on view in London. A pink sky or a crooked branch can suggest that someone has passed through, been hurt or fallen in love. When asked where she finds herself in these places, Abdalla answers, “I’m the landscape.” She also introduces Sit on the Chair Before It Forgets Its Purpose, a project she began during a research residency in Sharjah. In Tunisia she is exploring Stambeli, a tradition of music and trance. She explains why she hopes to take part in the rituals herself. Afterglow: From the Residue of a Departed Sun Maitha Abdalla, Omar Kholeif, Mohamed Monaiseer and Randa Maddah Presented by Tabari at No.9 Cork Street, London 30 October–21 November 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.