Shireen Taweel’s practice reflects the diasporic landscape she inhabits as a Lebanese Australian, employing cross-cultural discourse around the construction of cultural heritage, knowledge, identity, and language. Through sensorially immersive installations that draw on architecture, Islamic science and ritual, Taweel brings to light histories and cultural practices that have been buried beneath the weight of social political power structures. The development and research for her projects are often site-specific, working in collaboration with local communities, their architecture and their environment with a focus on experimentation in material and sound through site. Through the contemporary use of heritage coppersmith artisan techniques, including engraving and hand-piercing, Taweel’s works create a space for shared histories and fluid community identities.

Taweel’s works have been widely exhibited in notable institutions throughout Australia and Lebanon. Recent group shows include this language that is every stone, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Asad Raza, and Warraba Weatherall at Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2022), and soul fury, curated by Nur Shkembi at Bendigo Art Gallery (2022). Taweel was a finalist in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2022), was a highly commended finalist in the David Harold Tribe Sculpture Award (2022), and received the commendation prize for The Churchie Art Prize (2019). Her works are in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, Bendigo Art Gallery, and the Wetspac Corporate Art Collection.

sacred architecture and the celestial body, Shireen Taweel