Meri Helmi Särkkä

Mariam Haji is a Bahraini multi disciplinary fine artist who currently lives and works in Helsinki. She represented the
Kingdom of Bahrain in the 55th Venice Biennale 2013, and was the winner of Bahrain’s 38th National Fine Art
Competition for her “Muse” series, the youngest female artist to receive an honorary award from his Excellency the
Prime Minister of Bahrain Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa in 2012. Since Mariam’s marriage to a Finish national
resulted in her migration to Helsinki in 2017, she is currently the founder of Roihu Studios. A space specialized in Art
and Dance in Helsinki, Finland and a full time Artist.
Mariam works with different mediums ranging from Drawing and Painting to Video and Performance. In
conjunction with her studio practice, she has been invited to lead several international artist talks. Some of which
include the Mathaf Arab Museum Of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar; the Ministry of the People’s republic of China in
Beijing, China, Macgregor State High School, Brisbane, Australia and the Corner College in Zurich, Switzerland.
Mariam Haji’s work is also considered a national heritage to her country Bahrain, “Victory” is a permanent public
display inside the National Theater of Bahrain and her work is also included in the permanent art collection of The
National Museum of Bahrain, Other works by Mariam Haji have also been collected by The Ministry of Culture of The
People’s Republic of China for their Arab artists archive.
Statement From the Artist:
“My work is a constant reevaluation of the human condition where I involve elements of ethnographical research
that focus on the observation of social practices and interactions, especially between the ways which European
art history has had an effect on Bahraini culture. Historically my practice was particularly curious about
sociopolitical and religious environments where the subject of being ‘Female’ is themed, especially in my drawings,
where I translated ‘her’ in to a legend that intersects between the reinterpretation of European classical paintings
with elements of western feminist performance practices through visual language and classical drawing
techniques. I create various re-enactments through a modern Arab lens.
A constant in my career is that I conduct an autobiographical approach to political themes. I am constantly
seeking to question cultural systems or truths and thus generating new waves of understanding as to where “We”
are as a culture. Therefore, from a visually esthetically pleasing standpoint, I take greatest delight in the personal
story, a large scale dramatic presence to bridge emotional intensity between the artwork and the viewer,
especially in my drawings.