AMANI ALTHUWAINI

Lives and works in Kuwait Amani Al Thuwaini is a Kuwaiti artist and designer born in Ukraine. Amani believes that the cultural duality she inherited through her Kuwaiti and Ukrainian roots greatly influenced her unique awareness of identity and culture, impelling her to explore this in her work. This duality offers a unique perspective whereby she can often see through the eyes of the 'other,' consciously becoming the spectator, observing, analyzing, and absorbing the varying facets that form cultural identities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Amani combines individual and collective narratives with symbols open to differing cultural interpretations. She reveals the juncture where identities converge and exposes behaviors and rituals often taken for granted. Themes of luxury and socio-politics relevant to Kuwait and the Gulf region are emphasized in her work.