كامىلە
About
Camilla Dilshat is a sculpture/installation artist of Uyghur ethnicity born and based in London (b.1998). She is currently a student on the MA Fine Art course at City & Guilds of London Art School and has a studio in Brixton.
Emerging from experiential reflections, I delve into how the body experience forms an understanding of one’s diasporic identity while also shattering your sense of place. My life has been littered with misunderstandings from others regarding my ethnicity. My body felt invisible, and my mouth was unequipped to handle the tiring task of constant self-definition. As a therapeutic venture, I engage in sculpture-making to explore identity, memory and imagined homelands drawing from my own or my parent’s nostalgic imagery – a calabash gourd, sunflower seeds, or a stylistic window. With bodily feeling at the core of my work, my sculptures aptly transcend spoken language, helping me find ways to express myself when I cannot communicate in the Uyghur mother tongue. Led by the tug and pull of my body in comfort and discomfort, I am following a long slippery noodle towards redefining belonging to my Uyghur heritage.
Surreal, breathing sculptures traverse between bodily states: fullness, satisfaction, suffocation, and emptiness to name a few. Voluminous gourds speak of the stomach, body, and mouth, spurting and sucking up doughy wiggles. The domestic and the abject leaks out of my works - intimate in size consisting of materials such as: fatty latex, severed ceramic tongues, hair, raw wool, and uncanny references to food. Through a ritual and haptic process reflective of my Mum’s food preparation, I roll, squeeze, and dust with “flour”. Sandy textures and dry branches speak strongly of location. Of a homeland that now precariously exists in fleeting memory. Through a strong sense of process and materiality I expose the coexistence of comfort and discomfort that defines the diasporic experience.
CV
Upcoming Exhibitions
“I Said Fruit Salad [!!!]”, Hypha Studios Euston, London, 1 Dec – 6 Jan 2023
Group Exhibitions
“Embodied”, Morley Gallery, London, 7-28 October 2023
"Allodium", Forest Hill, London, 4-6 Oct 2023
“Medeniy Miras”, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 29 Sep – 6 Oct 2023
“MA Show 2023”, City & Guilds of London Art School, London, 2-9 Sep 2023
"Home Away From Home", House of Annetta, London, 20-28 July 2023
"Threshold", Hanbury Hall, London, 4-18 May 2023
"What Do We Become", Barbican Centre, Level G Hub, London, 14 April - 7 May 2023
"MA Fine Art Interim Show", City & Guilds of London Art School, London, 16-17 March 2023
“Uyghur: Reclaiming our Story”, Schoolhouse Studios, Melbourne, Australia, 11-18 March 2023
“Canyon”, Fresh Salad Art (virtual exhibition + Projection at RupturEXIBIT, London), 17 Feb – 3 March 2023
"Anonyme Zeichner", Galerie Im Körnerpark, Berlin, Germany, 18 June - 24 Aug 2022
"Meet Me Halfway", The Art Pavilion Mile End, London, 8-11 June 2022
"MA Fine Art Interim Show", City & Guilds of London Art School, London, March 2022
"Full-time Student Final Exhibition", Hampstead School of Art, June 2021
“Full-time Student Interim Exhibition”, Hampstead School of Art, May 2021
“They Came Before Us: Can't Be What You Can't See”, Collage Arts, Collaborative Visual Artist, Shoreditch & Wood Green, Nov 2019
Prizes
The Tony Carter Award, City & Guilds of London Art School, Sep 2023
Work(shop) Experience
Drop-in Design: Salt-Dough Sculpture, V&A, London, 9-11 August 2023
Memory Carriers Art Workshop, Uyghur Diaspora Voices, Sheffield, 21-22 July 2023
Salt Dough Making Workshop, Barbican Centre, 5 May 2023
Drop-in Zine Making Workshop Leader, Redbridge Heritage Centre, 14 Feb 2023
Two Day Kids Salt-Dough Workshop Leader, “Neeli Malik: 100 Days of Groceries”, Chingford Mount, 13 Jan – 6 Feb 2023
Children’s Ceramics Workshop Teacher, Hampstead School of Art, Jan 2023 - ongoing
People Powered Research Volunteer for “Ilford Limited: Analogue Stories”, National Portrait Gallery x Redbridge Museum, April - Dec 2022
Alumni Committee Member, The Creative Dimension Trust, 2020-ongoing
Select Publications
Studio Visit - Blog, Blanco Gallery, Nov 2023
Camilla Dilshat, Morley Gallery Podcast, Morley Radio, Oct 2023
Talking to the Artist Camilla Dilshat, Tarim Network: Our Canvas, Video Interview, Sep/Nov 2022
Education
MA Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School, 2021-2023
Advanced Course in Fine Art, Hampstead School of Art, 2020-2021
BA History, UCL, 2017-2020