Title:  mutations (Scanner 2blue)

Year: 2020

Media: Giclée print 290gsm Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, Edition 22/50 of 50 plus 2 artist's proofs

Size: 21 × 29.7 cm

About the work: Works in Mandy El-Sayegh’s mutations series use writing on top of found archival material to explore free-association and the mutability of meaning.

The works begin with reproductions from an anatomical book published in 1892 notable for being hand-illustrated with colour chromolithographs. Reproductions of body parts from the volume are overlaid by El-Sayegh with paint and writing.

The writing process starts with specific words which are repeated and changed, ‘mutating’ in a free-associative process. Interested in the unacknowledged linguistic codes which govern our interactions, El-Sayegh deliberately plays with creating suggestive slippages, tiny variations which transform meaning.

mutations (Scanner 2blue), based on a work first made in 2018, uses the phrase ‘two-state,’ which evolves into ‘who stays,’ evoking the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The phrases ‘to state’ and ‘just say’ also appear in the associative chain, perhaps alluding to a hesitation to speak openly. The flow of text is always ambiguous, with fragments such as ‘just 2’ and ‘stay stay stay’ suggesting romantic, as much as political, subject matter.

These works reference traditions of artistic experimentation with automatic writing and chance, as well as suggesting natural processes such as the replication of coded chains of DNA in living organisms, with slips in their sequences perpetually causing mutations. This limited edition, archival quality Giclée print is executed on Hahnemühle Bamboo, an agent-free fine art paper which is made from 90% bamboo fibres, making it highly environmentally friendly.

Bio: MANDY EL-SAYEGH is an artist whose practice is rooted in assemblage. Executed in a wide range of media—including densely layered paintings, sculpture, and installation, as well as performance, sound, and video—El-Sayegh’s works investigate the formation and break-down of systems of order, be they bodily, linguistic, or political. El-Sayegh was born in Malaysia and has roots in both Chinese and Palestinian heritage. El-Sayegh’s work will be featured in Otra Orilla / Another Shore, The Gateway Exhibition,

Abu Dhabi (2024). Recent presentations of her work include Art Basel Parcours, Basel (2024); Overbeck-Gesellschaft – Kunstverein Lübeck (2023); MOVE 2022: Culture club—Corps collectifs at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2022); the Biennale Matter of Art, Prague, (2022); and the traveling exhibition British Art Show 9 (2021–22). Her monograph The Makeshift Body was published in 2023 by Black Dog Press. El-Sayegh’s work is in public and private collections, including LACMA, Los Angeles; Tate, London; and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah.