Urban and industrial remnants costantly recur in the work. Their incorporation becomes a tool to investigate on their ambiguous status, circulation and alternative possibilities to diminish the impact of the industry.
At the core of her practice lies an interest in daily repeated gestures and in process as a form of knowledge. This extends beyond objects into the design of shared workspaces. They are intendend as environments that support exchange and collaboration.
Glaze development for Ola’s Hassanein’s solo The Watcher
2025
In The Watcher, Ola Hassanain‘s solo exhibition at Kunstinstituut Melly, Ola reflects on the act of watching as a form of responsibility—of bearing witness to both environmental and political catastrophe. Central to the project is the figure of the watcher, drawn from Sudan’s Gezira irrigation scheme: a community caretaker who monitors water levels and signals early signs of floor. Rooted in communities facing environmental precarity, including Ola’s own, the role becomes a lens for considering how people respond to the slow unfolding of catastrophe—whether natural or engineered.
Ola commissioned to the studio a crackle glaze for two stool tops she had previously designed and made. The glaze was mainly composed of treated asbestos and clay, aiming at resembling soil in drought periods.