When asked what medium of art she would like to partake in, Mandy El-Sayegh answers, “Oil wrestling.” Though curt and forward, one cannot help but react to her answer with levity, for it is El-Sayegh who administers her answer as such. The London-based artist, born to a Malaysian mother and a Palestinian father, affirms that her diasporic identity plays a factor in her art. “Yes, I think this applies to every artist, whether they are conscious of it or not.”
Where works are typically hung and presented formally to a viewer, El-Sayegh’s art lives in a gallery like a cat. Moving. Unabashed. It hangs from the walls and sleeps on the floor, and guests can interact with the artist’s pieces by touching them or stepping on them. In doing so, she is bringing her art to the consumer rather than separating them from it. The elusive and almost classist nature in which art operates is broken down. We are witnessing Mandy El-Sayegh democratising her work to the masses.
Allowing for the interaction of the audience with her art further creates an ever-changing narrative in her pieces. Not only does she create the initial narrative of the piece, but her work transmutes in the hands of her audience, a similar technique employed by the modernist artist Marina Abramović. Exploring art through a variety of formats, Mandy El-Sayegh is eagerly waiting for the collaboration with Malaysian artist Jessica Kwok to take place in the not-so-distant future.
The artist’s use of rubber, for example, is a nod to her mother’s history and heritage, where her forefathers were rubber tappers. Latex is a primary material in her pieces, used to bind fragments together. She adds: “I think it is always there, as a silent witness, that is preserving material and decaying as time goes on.”
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