Acclaimed emerging artist Shelly Nadashi will personally screen her short films, show slides and talk to us about her emerging practice.
Nadashi is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Glasgow, having graduated from The School for Visual Theatre in Jerusalem and from the MFA programme at the Glasgow School of Art. Her practice encompasses a variety of media such as performance, video, puppetry, text, sound and object-making.
Nadashi’s work is simultaneously autobiographical and surreal, presenting narratives that examine the way in which personal situations are constructed from broader social contexts. This strategy emotionally engages and entertains the audience whilst concurrently creating a space for them to reflect on the wider themes inherent in these narratives, such as voyeurism, social pressure to conform and the effect of our immediate environment on our mental state. A sophisticated comic exaggeration in both her speech and gesture accentuate the pathos of her situation but also contradicts the melodrama by undercutting the seriousness of whats at stake.
Nadashi has sustained interest in working with inanimate objects. This performative mechanism mimics the relationship between the puppet and puppeteer, setting up a symbolic, fetishistic (mystical and sexual) rapport with these objects and attributing to them particular powers. This technique allows a forensic examination of lifes intimate moments that is incisive but dreamlike. The objects exist as documents of a performance but are also imbued with a votive quality independent of the text.
Nadashi has exhibited and performed internationally, participated in numerous group exhibitions, and produced an award-winning film. She is currently working towards two solo exhibitions.
