Art / Spike island
Spike Island opens autumn exhibitions: Nour Jaouda and Dan Lie
Spike Island is preparing to open its twin autumn exhibitions for 2025: Nour Jaouda’s Matters of Time and Sleeping Methodologies from Dan Lie.
Jaouda is a Libyan artist who splits her time between Cairo and London. Her work spans sculpture, painting and large-scale installation in the creation of what she terms “landscapes of memory”; imbued with echoes of her personal, social and geographical history.
Matters of Time will be her first institutional solo exhibition, and will feature a collection of hand-crafted “sculptural tapestries” that reflect her constantly shifting sense of cultural identity.
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Nour Jaouda, ‘Matters of Time’, Works in Progress (2025) – photo: courtesy the artist and Union Pacifi
Amongst the newly commissioned work on show is a large-scale but intricate installation inspired by ‘Khayamiya’ appliqué textile adorning the interior of tents.
“For Jaouda, the intimate tentlike environment she creates within Spike Island’s monumental gallery is also a memorial space, where viewers are invited to come together, sit and reflect”, say the explanatory notes to the exhibition.
“Drawing on memories of botanical landscapes, sewn onto the tent are deconstructed shapes of indigenous plants and trees that have once been uprooted. Within this sheltered retreat, Jaouda constructs a space to mourn an absent landscape.”
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Dan Lie is a trans-nonbinary artist based in Berlin, who describes their practice as celebrating “natural cycles of transformation and the many interdependent exchanges that structure ecosystems”.
As such, their work often examines materials as they evolve or decay, bringing greater awareness to the processes of life, death and everything in between.
Sleeping Methodologies is a new commission that draws on the artist’s personal experiences of bereavement, namely the loss of their father during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dan Lie, Sleeping Methodologies (2025) – photo: courtesy of the artist
The exhibition notes characterise Lie’s new installation as an exploration of “how crisis and fatigue can become catalysts for transformation.
“Developed through research visits in the UK and public dialogues with Spike Island’s community, the work reflects on labour, rest, and the limits of productivity in contemporary life.
“This exhibition represents an exciting and important moment in Lie’s practice – a tabula rasa, or ‘blank slate’ – in which they depart from their familiar themes and materials. Sleeping Methodologies invites you to slow down, reflect, and investigate your own relationship with rest.”
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Nour Jaouda: Matters of Time and Dan Lie: Sleeping Methodologies are at Spike Island from September 27-January 11, 2026, Wednesday-Sunday 12-5pm (closed Monday and Tuesday), with a free exhibition launch party on September 26 from 6-11pm (booking advised).
Follow @nour.jaouda, @liedanlie and @spikeisland for updates. More information on the programme is available from www.spikeisland.org.uk.
Dan Lie’s exhibition is produced with the support of the Henry Moore Foundation.
Main photo: Dan Lie
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