Foraging The Yard - A workshop by Shereen Saif

Foraging The Yard - by Shereen Saif

A plant walk in The Yard with artist Shereen Saif to discover the flora and unpack the practice of foraging in urban spaces.

Join writer and storyteller Shereen Saif in an unhurried evening stroll around The Yard to take a closer look at the flora that has taken root and flourished. Through the deliberate act of slowing down, discover a bio-dynamic ecosystem of native and non-native species growing in harmony, right at the heart of Alserkal Avenue. 

‘Foraging the Yard’ is also an invitation to unpack the practice of urban foraging and reflect on its role in the world we live in. It is an offer to be more by doing less.

Shereen Saif is an Indian-born UAE-bred writer and multi-disciplinary artist with a practice that spans theatre, dance, storytelling and conceptual art. 

An advocate of the oral tradition, she is known for her physical storytelling style that integrates elements of music, dance and theatre. Her movement vocabulary is grounded in her training in the Indian classical traditions of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathak, while her craft as an actor draws inspiration from her training in India at Natanakairali and Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research. 

Marrying intuition and method, her practice in the realm of conceptual art explores the relationship between body, time, material and space. Among her most notable work include her collaboration with American painter and video artist Judy Rifka (‘INTERactive’ 2016) and the work she has shown at Dubai Culture’s Sikka Art Fair: ‘Silent Conversations’ (2019), a photo-video-AR project inspired from her association with the Deaf community in the UAE, ‘We Are’ (2018) a VR installation with conceptual artist Patrick Lichty and site-specific video installations with Lumiere Collective co-founder and filmmaker Swapna Kurup (‘The Unmanifested’ 2014, ‘Amorphous’ 2016). 

Her interest in urban foraging led to a collaborative work with gardeners in her locality in the UAE to explore the relational ecology of belonging. The outcome was ‘May’ (2023), a flora installation and culinary spread as part of Alserkal Arts Foundation’s Rewilding the Kitchen. More recently, she was engaged in “Foraging the Mina”, a research project commissioned by Warehouse 421.

Host or Publisher Alserkal Avenue