In this performance, Reem Al Menhali presents a series of poems of varying lengths, tones, and rhythms that reimagine historical time-keeping.  Assuming the position of the ‘Person Standing Outside Time’ in her writing and when observing her own life, Al Menhali creates a fictional calendar that fuses the mythical, the real, and the imaginary. This performance is commissioned by 421. 

To attend this performance, kindly book a guided curator tour of the exhibition And The Mirrors Are Many . Curator-Led tours are offered on selected Saturdays throughout the duration of the exhibition, and are free! Bookings are secured on a first come first served basis. For more information about the tour schedule and to book, visit: https://www.421.online/en/visit/ or contact hello@421.online. 

This performance is part of the exhibition, And The Mirrors Are Many, which is on view until May 8, 2023 in Gallery 2. To learn more, visit the exhibition page: https://www.421.online/en/whats-on/and-the-mirrors-are-many/

Photo by The Frei

About the artist 

Reem Almenhali (b. 1997, Abu Dhabi) is an Emirati performance artist and a playwright. Her body of work includes two performances Deliberately and in Cash and Al Raheel | Departure. Almenhali received a B.A in theater with a minor in psychology from New York University Abu Dhabi. She won the 2020 Gulf Capital ADMAF Creativity Award for writing the script of Al Raheel.

Almenhali is interested in making work that traces the evolution of things in the gulf; how practices and lifestyles changed over time, the shift in the lexicon, and how the gulf’s post-modern fashion scene emerged. She’s also interested in writing about the idea of time being a place to belong to while utilizing the Arabic and English languages to create bilingual texts that explore how two languages can be a dual window to meaning.