Farah Azrak

Farah Azrak
Azrak was born in Damascus, Syria in 1986, and graduated in Fashion Design at the Istituto Marangoni in London, UK in 2013. Her career has taken her from working at Alexander McQueen to The Women’s Embroidery Workshop in Shatila Refugee Camp, from Harpers Baazar to dance therapy. She now lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon.
 
Living in the state of anxiety engendered by the constant fluxuation of place and belonging, she reaches into her subconscious to create symbolist collages. The dense and decorative surfaces of these are rich, but not static. They are full of movement and humour, channelling her eclectic experiences and interests. Dazzling gods, kings and beauties preen, pose or bounce along in tanks. Her characters often seem to be performing, as if in a play or film, or perhaps playing up to the camera lens, composing themselves for a fashion shot or for a film poster.
 
Alongside her 2D artworks, Azrak continues with her research project into fabric as a representation of movement and space, and exploring the use of body and voice in her practice. In 2014 she worked with Robin Bahni on the collaborative project Dance for Camera. The next year she collaborated with artists Basma and Zaitouneh from Shatila Refugee camp in the exhibition Embroideries of Actualities at ARA in Beirut, Lebanon. Her collages have been included in group shows in London, Beirut and Japan