In 2023, applicants for this year’s 7th edition of the V&A’s Jameel Prize, titled Jameel Prize: Moving Images and curated by V&A’s Jameel curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East Rachel Dedman, were invited to apply through an open call.
In partnership with Art Jameel, this international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition sought artists working with film, video, and time-based media, as well as those engaging with established and emerging digital technologies.
From over 300 submissions, seven finalists were selected by an international jury, which included artists Morehshin Allahyari and Ajlan Gharem (winner of the previous prize, Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics), curator Sadia Shirazi, and academic Laura U. Marks, chaired by V&A director Tristram Hunt.
Hailing from countries across the Middle East and South Asia, the 2024 finalists were Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Jawa El Khash, Alia Farid, Zahra Malkani, Marrim Akashi Sani, Khandakar Ohida, and the collaborative team of Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Kesam Rahmanian.
Focusing on issues like water, ecology, landscape, and spirituality, as well as how extractive industries and political dynamics shaped the environment and society in the region, the artists’ work for the prize looked at how history is written — exploring the creation and destruction of monuments through acts of iconoclasm and suggesting new ways of thinking about museums and collections.
After much anticipation, Khandakar Ohida was announced as the winner on the evening of Wednesday, 27 November, receiving a £25,000 prize, and whose work will be showcased at the V&A South Kensington from 30 November 2024 to 16 March 2025.
Responding to the artist’s win, Tristram said, “The jury praised the quiet power of Khandakar’s beautiful cinematic work, Dream Your Museum. The film and installation of objects from her uncle’s vast esoteric collection speak to an experience of Muslim communities in India and challenge the traditional authority of conventional museums.”
Antonia Carver, Art Jameel Director, added: “We are so thrilled to celebrate the seventh edition of the Jameel Prize, awarded to Khandakar Ohida based on a rigorous selection process. The significance of this prize lies in its ability to highlight the innovative spirit at the heart of practices that draw on the legacy of Islamic art and design. This year, by focusing on moving image and digital media, the prize sheds light on artists who are redefining visual storytelling in form and content and are engaging with urgent issues — from ecology and spirituality to the resilience of community histories.”
Ahead of the exhibition opening this Saturday, The New Arab takes a closer look at the works of the seven finalists, featuring commentary from four of them who attended the V&A press event on Wednesday morning.
Winner Khandakar Ohida (India)
Khandakar Ohida, a visual artist from India, presented Dream Your Museum (2022).
The film shows her uncle Khandakar Selim’s 50-year collection of objects, displayed in his traditional mud home, which has since been torn down.
Through this film, Khandakar challenges India’s formal museums, which often focus on nationalism, by showing how everyday objects can tell important stories.
Alongside the film, there was a display of objects belonging to Khandakar’s uncle, stored in simple metal trunks, and their informal arrangement, according to Khandakar, “contrasts with the neat, organised look of traditional museums.”
For Khandakar, this contrast “suggests a future where cultural heritage is freed from traditional constraints.”
Sadik Kwaish Alfraji (Iraq, based in the Netherlands)
Sadik Kwaish Alfraji is an Iraqi artist based in the Netherlands, whose work focuses on storytelling, particularly around themes of identity and migration, drawing from both personal and shared memories.
For the Jameel Prize: Moving Images, Sadik presented two hand-drawn works dedicated to his parents.
The first, A Thread of Light Between My Mother’s Fingers and Heaven (2023), centred on the image of his mother’s hand, which he describes as “sacred.”
“This hand represents both mystical and everyday moments, including scenes from our life in Iraq — sharing meals, singing together, and acts of care, protection, love, and support,” Sadik added.
The second, A Short Story in the Eyes of Hope (2023), told the story of the artist’s father and his search for a better life. The sound in this work was particularly significant, with traditional burial prayers from Iraqi funerals playing over the images.
Alongside the films, Sadik also displayed some of his original drawings, with the works reflecting the intimate and hands-on nature of his creative process.
Jawa El Khash (Syria, based in Canada)
Syrian artist Jawa El Khash was fascinated by the freedom that digital world-building offered and for Jameel Prize: Moving Images, she showcased The Upper Side of the Sky (2019), an interactive digital world created using virtual reality and 3D software.
Inspired by her childhood in Damascus, Syria, and her memories of visiting the ancient ruins of Palmyra, Jawa aimed to revive Syrian archaeology and nature, both of which had been damaged or destroyed during the ongoing Syrian war.
As visitors move through the ancient city, they are able to explore how these monuments, both physical and natural, could survive in a digital world, with the central idea being that in this space, such landmarks can be preserved as a form of digital archaeology.
Alia Farid (Kuwait/Puerto Rico)
Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid’s work for Jameel Prize: Moving Images explored the relationship between communities in the Gulf and water, focusing on ecological damage.
Alia presented this exploration in two ways. First, through her film Chibayish (2022-2023), which follows her interactions with young residents of southern Iraq, near the Kuwait border. The film shows them herding water buffalo and sharing stories about the environmental changes in the region, including the impact of the oil industry on their traditions.
The second presentation featured a sculpture from her 2019 series In Lieu of What Was, which includes large-scale versions of traditional water vessels once used in the Arabian Gulf; these vessels, once cared for by individuals to share water, have become less common as the region’s water source has shifted from rivers to desalination plants, impacting local ecosystems.
Zahra Malkani (Pakistan)
Zahra Malkani’s work explored the intersection of sound, the sacred, and water in Sindh, Pakistan, where the waterways, in Zahra’s words, “hold deep spiritual significance.”
Since 2019, Zahra has been collecting sounds for her project A Ubiquitous Wetness (2023), documenting devotional music and traditions from communities living along the Indus River and the Indian Ocean.
Through her research, Zahra highlighted how these sonic practices resist the environmental and infrastructural challenges faced by the region, a concept she explored and presented through various mediums at the V&A.
These included listening sessions, performances, soundscapes, mixes, and publications, all inspired by the layered nature of Islamic manuscripts.
Marrim Akashi Sani (Iraq/Iran/USA)
Marrim Akashi Sani, an Iraqi-Iranian artist from Detroit, presented her photo series Muharram (2023), which documented her local community during the Islamic holy month.
The series captured both public and private rituals, as well as personal expressions of faith, with Marrim walking through the city spontaneously, camera in hand, capturing intimate portraits of people, places, and everyday scenes — from domestic interiors to the back rooms of local shops.
Through these images of her family, neighbours, and personal belongings, Marrim explores how the diverse Muslim community in the American Midwest has preserved and adapted its faith over time.
That said, Marrim shared with The New Arab that all of these photos are “pictures of me. They’re pictures of myself, and even though I am behind the camera, I am still present in them.”
Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Hesam Rahmanian (Iran, based in UAE)
Iranian artists Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian, based in the UAE, presented their animation If I Had Two Paths, I Would Choose a Third (2020), which explores the act of iconoclasm and the fate of statues after they are toppled.
The work combined media coverage of significant events, such as the 1953 Iranian coup and the 2003 Iraq war, with surreal images inspired by Aja’ib al-Makhluqat (The Wonders of Creation), a 13th-century text on cosmography, and microscopic images of bacteria.
Interestingly, the animation, made from over 3,000 hand-painted pieces of paper, uses a technique the artists call ‘fluid painting,’ influenced by Sufism.
The V&A exhibition of Khandakar’s work will be free to the public, and after its run there, it will tour Cartwright Hall in Bradford as part of UK City of Culture 2025 and to Hayy Jameel in Jeddah.
Zainab Mehdi is The New Arab’s Associate Editor and researcher specialising in governance, development, and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa region
Follow her on X: @zaiamehdi
