Foam 3h presents Terror of Beauty, the first solo museum exhibition by artist Sarah Amrani. With her work, Amrani explores the complex relationship between technology, culture and beauty standards. The multimedial exhibition invites visitors to think critically about how our perception of beauty and identity is shaped in the digital age.
Strategy of Beautification, Hijab and Face Cut Out
© Sarah Amrani.
Untitled, 2017
© Sarah Amrani.
Strategy of Beautification, 2018
© Sarah Amrani.
Sarah Amrani explores the effect of social media and technologies on the experience of female identity, with a focus on the face as a battleground of beauty. In a time where we are constantly confronted with unrealistic beauty standards, through our phones, television and advertising, Terror of Beauty offers a moment to reflect. The exhibition also explores AI-driven beauty filters that are used to construct a preview of physical surgical procedures. Disguised as a tool, this contributes to the pressure to meet certain standards.
An important topic for Amrani is the hijab as a visual frame of the female face. A frame that not only emphasizes her beauty, but also reflects women’s autonomy and self-expression. Driven by a fascination with the visual language of the hijab in a digital context, such as in makeup tutorials, she began to explore the hijab in relation to beauty standards and digital technologies. In doing so, she presents an underexplored perspective in the conversation about beauty and the digital world and challenges the current societal discourse on this topic.
Terror of Beauty highlights the intersection between technology, culture and beauty standards, and challenges visitors to think about the influence of developments in this area on our self-image. The exhibition contains photography, video installations, and textile works.
About the artist
Sarah Amrani (1994) is a conceptual artist from Rotterdam. She graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy and has a master’s degree in film studies & visual Culture at the University of Antwerp. She has participated in various group exhibitions, including Het Andere Verhaal - Kunst uit het Marokkaanse modernisme at the Cobra Museum, Amstelveen (2022), New radicalism at MONO, Rotterdam (2020) and The New Current at Spaanse Kubus, Rotterdam (2020). In 2018, Amrani held an exhibition called #Beautification, creating the perfect face at DASTHE art space in Casablanca, Morocco. Her work has been published in Metal Magazine and i-D Netherlands, among others.
Florentine Riem Vis Grant
Sarah Amrani is the eighth recipient of the Florentine Riem Vis Grant. The grant was established in memory of Florentine Riem Vis (1959-2016) and is awarded annually to enable a young artist to further develop their artistic career. Previous recipients include Steffi Reimers (2023), Bebe Blanco Agterberg (2022), Karolina Wojtas (2021), Gilleam Trapenberg (2020), Solène Gün (2019), Rebecca Sampson (2018) and Stefanie Moshammer (2016/17).
About Foam 3h
Foam 3h is a project space in the museum where recently graduated artists and photographers are invited to present their first solo museum exhibition. For this space, Foam selects national and international artists who are challenged to experiment, surprise and push the limits of photography.
Sarah Amrani – Terror of Beauty can be seen from 6 December 2024 – 26 February 2025 at Foam. Open daily 10am - 6pm, Thurs/Fri 10am - 9pm.
Foam
Keizersgracht 609
1017 DS Amsterdam
The Netherlands
+ 31 (0)20 5516500
www.foam.org
Note to editors
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The exhibition is made possible by DLA Piper, the Van Bijlevelt Foundation and the Mondriaan Fund.
