Abeer Sultan on Archives, Family History, and Hybrid Identity

Abeer Sultan, an artist based in Riyadh, reflects on her approach to reinterpreting personal narratives through both intimate and communal archives. Her journey with archives commenced during her residency at Misk Art Institute, where she produced 'Al Bidaya' (2022), a silent film that delves into themes of death and mourning, featuring footage of grieving women from North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Arabian Gulf, alongside a poem by Brigit Kelly. After earning a Master's in Museum Studies, her fascination with tangible materials led to collages such as 'The Mound' (2025) and 'Dragée' (2026), the latter currently exhibited at SAMoCA in 'A Night of a Lifetime'. 'Dragée' creatively reconstructs her parents' wedding using chocolate wrappers, photographs, a fork, and a spoon on a metal tray. Sultan's installation 'The Reparation of a Lost Tooth' (2024) illustrates the locations where she lost teeth in her grandmother's home. Presently, she is at the Delfina Foundation in London, backed by the Saudi Visual Arts Commission, focusing on her hybrid Nigerian-Saudi identity through soap operas and Nollywood, while sampling sounds and crafting lyrics about liberation from imagery. She considers internet archiving a vital act of preservation.