Inspired by the museum’s collections, artist MH Sarkis has created a intricate new textile work for Exeter City Council’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)
Taking inspiration from textiles in RAMM’s collections MH Sarkis has created a new woven hanging currently on display in the museum. This commission speculates on a future scenario where our climate and ecological emergencies encourage a search for a new habitable planet. Votive for the Next Earth is also an offering given in exchange for the new planet to its god. Sarkis says, ‘In this way, the scientific progress we make in the future functions in tandem with the human desire for ritual and belief in a higher being, especially in moments of strife and grief’.
MH Sarkis is a Lebanese artist based in London. She grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where she lived for seventeen years. She is inspired by science fiction narratives, particularly near-future scenarios with specific warnings for us. Her artwork often involves interactive elements for the viewer so that a touch, gaze, or movement triggers a response within the artwork.
Sarkis completed the Goldsmiths MFA Fine Art programme at the University of London and her work has featured in a number of Shape Arts exhibitions, on the Saatchi Art Platform and in the Arab Women Artists Now Festival. Recent exhibitions include 2068 at SPACE in Hackney; The Other Art Fair, Saatchi Art; and London Grads Now at the Saatchi Gallery. Sarkis was shortlisted for the 2022 Lumen Prize and was a winner of Arebyte’s Open Screen 2022 and the Almacantar Award 2021-2022. She is a current recipient of Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice award.
RAMM’s contemporary art curator Lara Goodband said: ‘RAMM’s collections continue to inspire artists to create imaginative new artwork. MH Sarkis’s textile hanging displayed amongst RAMM’s permanent historic displays is an exciting addition to RAMM’s new commissions. She has designed and created a beautiful jacquard tapestry inspired by textiles in the museum’s collection. This new work, like much of RAMM’s programme this year, engages with the climate and ecological emergencies we’re living through.’
This commission is the latest element in an ongoing focus on contemporary art at RAMM. The museum has recently acquired work by internationally renowned artists Joy Gregory, Susan Derges, Michelle Sank and Peter Randall-Page among others, as well as showing an exciting programme of exhibitions such as Hollow Earth, (on 19 September).
Votive for the Next Earth will be on display at RAMM from 29 March to 19 November 2023. More information at rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/votive-for-the-next-earth-by-mh-sarkis
