Following language and its movement through our bodies and worlds, sculptor and hypnotherapist Samara Sallam creates carefully crafted physical objects that outline a liminal space or edifice of meaning and words, commanding transcendence or contemplation.
For O—Overgaden, Sallam reworks the Palestinian folk tale archetype of the Ghoula—a flesh-eating monster who devours her family and destroys her whole village—into a story of finding “meaning,” unfolding in three acts. Visitors enter Sallam’s exhibition through a carved wooden portal—the first of three sculptures—equally casting a creation spell and forming a monster’s body. The second sculpture is a small, dead ceramic bird with an open belly acting as a compass, while Sallam’s final piece is a giant hypnotic fish head, a symbol of wisdom and transitioning that points—as a shadow membrane or third portal—to another level of consciousness. While silent, almost withdrawn in its appearance, Sallam’s rite-of-passage trio of sculptures—combining inherent violence, existential quests, and the need to ascend spiritually—also forms a metaphor for resistance against the current, ceaseless attacks on the Palestinian people.
Samara Sallam (b. 1991, PL/DK) is a Copenhagen-based visual artist, journalist and hypnotherapist. She holds an MFA from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2022) and a BA from the Funen Art Academy (2019). Furthermore, Sallam has studied visual arts at L’école Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Algeria and journalism at Damascus University in Syria.
Credit: O—Overgaden