Spotlight Essay: Baya, Danseuse aux poissons

Commissioned spotlight essay for the forthcoming edited volume The Barjeel: Dreams of Modern Arab Art, published by Thames & Hudson in partnership with the Barjeel Art Foundation. This invited contribution presents an original critical reading of Baya’s Danseuse aux poissons (1990), examining the work through questions of dream-space, multispecies encounter and relational forms of world-making. Moving beyond biographical framings frequently associated with Baya’s practice, the essay draws upon contemporary theoretical perspectives around ecology, encounter and interdependence to consider how the work generates alternative ways of understanding relationships between human and non-human life. Situating Baya’s practice within wider debates around modern Arab art and decolonial approaches to art history, the chapter contributes to contemporary international discourse on artistic subjectivity, imagination and expanded forms of relationality. Developed as part of a commissioned series of scholarly spotlight texts, the contribution forms part of an internationally recognised editorial publication framework with specialist advisory and curatorial review structures.