At Frieze London last October, Sophia Al-Maria publicly quit art. Across the art fair’s five days, she presented “Wall-Based Work”, a series of performances inspired by stand-up comedy. One day, she staged a conversation about land rights in Brazil. On another, she “married” an audience member for a visa. On the Thursday, she went on strike in solidarity with Gaza. And to cap it off, following an art career spanning 15 years that brought her multimedia works to Tate Britain, the Whitney, the Venice Biennale and other institutions, she stood before an audience and declared she was giving it all up.
“I was feeling so frustrated with the art world. I was saying: I’ve had it, this is my finale. I really just want to retire and learn how to live. And afterwards, I felt relieved,” Al-Maria, 42, tells me over a video call from Barcelona, where a large, unfinished canvas behind her suggests that she might not be totally done, after all. When I point this out, she laughs. “I am quitting, but I’m doing these few last shows because I was already committed to them, and I feel it’s important to finish what I started.”
‘I really just want to retire and learn how to live.’ © Sophie Green
Al-Maria’s 2012 memoir ‘The Girl Who Fell To Earth’ © Sophie Green
