Sarah Diefallah

Biography

Sarah Diefallah was born in 1997 in Giza, Egypt. Following the Arab Spring, she moved with her family to Doha, Qatar; she started exploring visual arts to cope with the challenges a young expat's life has brought onto her. Ever since, her creative practice has focused on the concepts of liminality, identity, and collective trauma. After graduating high school, Sarah moved to Budapest, Hungary where she is currently finishing her degree in Art and Psychology. Throughout her studies, she expanded her practice into installation, experimental sculpture and video. Her works were displayed in two solo exhibitions and multiple group ones. In addition, she won the McDaniel Prize for Writing and Research in 2019 and in the following year, she was featured on the first issue of Fusayfsa' Journal. Her internships at Art Quarter Budapest and Fire Station Doha gave her substantial experience in working in galleries and art residencies. She collaborated with peer interns, artists, and curators, working on various tasks ranging from photography to curating, and content writing. Currently, Sarah is working as a writing peer tutor at her college and is looking forward to the next step in her career as an interdisciplinary artist and researcher.

Artist Statement

My subject matter is humans, in all their fragility, variability, and resilience. From naked, deformed bodies, to apocalyptic cityscapes, I aim to capture the liminal state I, and many others, constantly experience as dislocated beings. While Doha prompted my creative work, Giza and Cairo have remained as great sources of inspiration. Whether it is installation, ink, or sculpture, I constantly use photographs and sketches I collect during my visits to Egypt to revisit and further explore concepts of identity, surveillance, and post-revolution trauma. Through my art, I aim to create holistic experiences which spark conversations about our experiences in a modern age where we find ourselves constantly alienated and displaced.

Questions for profile

1. Your passions in life

It might sound cliché as this is a profile about my art, but making art truly is my biggest passion. Something about getting in the zone and pouring my feelings into an artwork or even just talking about a new idea keeps me motivated. The biggest driving force for me when it comes to this is when I manage to spark a conversation or a feeling in someone through my work.

2. What or who are your inspirations?

I think my inspirations are divided into two categories: favourite artists and a bigger range of themes and places I find inspiring. I always like to mention Frida Kahlo as she was one of the first artists I resonated with and even though I have moved away from self-portraits in recent years I still find her work very inspiring. Marlene Dumas, Dia Azzawi, and Khaled Barakeh’s works are also some of my go-to’s when I am in need of inspiration.
On the other hand, Giza and Cairo have remained a constant inspiration for me over the years. I always collect sketches and photos whenever I visit because I find the cities themselves to be extremely inspiring, but it’s also the complex mixture of feelings they stir in me that I aim to capture in my work.

3. Your type of Artwork?

I choose to call myself an interdisciplinary artist even though a lot of my works are paintings. I started off with figurative work in acrylic and ink in the past few years then expanded into more experimental media and styles. I think my choice of media has impacted the way I approach different topics as I currently work on apocalyptic landscapes in video, paint, sculpture, and installation yet I still touch upon similar themes I did in my figurative work. I think it’s hard to define my artworks into one category or type, but I would perhaps categorize it under a postcolonial, feminist, and interdisciplinary umbrella but I think this is something that someone who views my art should be able to question rather than me labeling it
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4. Plans for the future?

I hope that in the next few years I can expand my work further into public space and experiment more with interactive installations. I am planning to continue working on themes of liminality and surveillance, but I hope that my next step, wherever it is, brings up new ideas and inspirations.

5. Favourite artists?

I guess I already answered this one :))

6. A quote that defines you the most?

I think Robert Frost’s quote “the best way out is always through” does not define me as much as it has helped me get through a lot and it is this concept of embracing the process rather than focusing on a way out that has inspired me to start painting in the first place.