S a r a h   D o b a i

b. 1965, London, UK
Lives and works in London

Sarah Dobai Red Room 2001 Lamdachrome print, edition 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Entwistle Gallery, London

Sarah Dobai Gordon 2001 Lamdachrome print, edition 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Entwistle Gallery, London

Sarah Dobai engages a tradition of realism concerned with contemporary lived reality through her exploration of the social, physical and psychic relations between subjects and spaces. Staging scenarios rather than portraits, Dobai teases out a web of contingent relations between an event, or relay of events developed in dialogue with a site, and the actions or inaction of figures located therein. These situations are located in a fragmented, anonymous and yet commonplace urban environment, and explore what Simon Morrisey has called “the psychology of atmosphere.”¹
Within the photographic image, she highlights a psychological interdependence between figures and their environment, in a way that recalls the schizophrenic’s loss of distinctions between inside and outside, of bodily and ego boundaries. Figures merge with their environments in ways that seems to externalize a psychological state. Dobai’s practice combines this investigation of the dramatic and emotional possibilities of spaces with a rigorous dissection of visual codes and narrative image-making. She uses the language of staged photography to undermine the very fabric of her images, the psychological tension at the heart of Dobai’s work permeating their compositional structure. Scenes appear to frame moments either directly before or after an event, a narrative ploy that becomes an entropic loop in a work like the film Yard (2000), where tension builds around the expectation of resolution. Dobai also engages a visual language of signs drawn from the kind of depictions of contemporary urban life that we might identify with the “social realist” films of Ken Loach or Mike Leigh. Her reflexive use of these stereotypes flips our attention back to the role of the medium in the processes of subjectivation. This element of entropic introspection underlies both the narrative and formal structures of her work, and forges a conceptual alignment between Dobai’s practice and the writings of Robert Smithson.

Sarah Dobai Into the Desert 2001 Lamdachrome print, edition 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Entwistle Gallery, London

Sarah Dobai Wind Corner 2001 Lamdachrome print, edition 1/3 Courtesy of the artist and Entwistle Gallery, London

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2003 Two on a Party, ARTLAB 24, Imperial College, London, UK. 2002 Sarah Dobai, Project Room, Artists Space, New York, NY. 2001 Sarah Dobai, Entwistle, London, UK. 2000 Yard, Platform Gallery, London, UK. Patio de Escuelas, Imago 2000, Centro de Fotografia de la Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago di Compostella, Spain. 1999 Turnaround Project, Hayward Gallery, London, UK. 1997 SWEAT, Camerawork Gallery, London, UK.

Selected Group Exhibitions
2002 Shimmering Substance, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK. Unscene, Gasworks, London, UK. 2001 Scarlet and Black, Mellowbirds, London, UK. 2000 Black Box Recorder, British Council touring exhibition. Word Enough to Save a Life Word Enough to Take a Life, Clare College Mission Church, London, UK. 1998 Biennale de L’Image, Centre National de Photographie, Paris, France. Sightings – New Photographic Art, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK. 1997 Knowledge/Control/Power, Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland. New Contemporaries, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK; Camden Arts Centre, London, UK; Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Scotland. 1995 Collections, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada.

Further Reading
Archer, Michael, “Sarah Dobai,” Artforum International v.40 no.5 (Jan. 2002): 153
Dobai, Sarah – Tennessee Williams, Two on a Party, artists’ publication (Imperial College, London, and Aldgate Press, London, 2003)
Exley, Roy, “Sarah Dobai,” Art Press no.276 (Feb. 2002): 76-77
       , “Anticorps (Antibodies),” Contemporary Visual Arts no. 29 (Jun.-Aug. 2000): 36
Gallo, Rubén, “Sarah Dobai,” Poliester (Fall 1995): 42-45
Ireson, Ally, “Slowing Down the Snapshot,” D-Tour (Feb.1998): 32
Morrissey, Simon & John Slyce, Sarah Dobai (Ediciones Universidad Salamanca: Salamanca, Spain, 2002)
Morrissey, Simon, “Amnesia: Sarah Dobai, Rachel Lowe, Sophy Rickett & Elisa Sighicelli” Contemporary Visual Arts no. 18 (Jan.-Mar. 1998): 44-49
       , “Sarah Dobai: Hayward Gallery,” Untitled no.18 (Spring 1999): 29
Pinsent, Richard, “Adriotly controlled mise-en-scène at Entwistle,” The Art Newspaper (Dec. 2001): 67
Smythe, Cherry, “Teetering,” Photographic Review (Spring 2002): 46-47
Ouverture: “Sarah Dobai” Flash Art v.29 no.129 (Mar.-Apr. 1996): 105

¹ Morrissey, Simon & John Slyce, Sarah Dobai (Ediciones Universidad Salamanca: Salamanca, Spain, 2002)

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