2026
Announcement: Azzah Sultan is the selected FCINY x HIAP x Pioneer Works Artist-in-Residence
Azzah Sultan, photo by Zayira Ray
We are excited to announce the first ever Artist-in-Residence through the FCINY x HIAP x Pioneer Works residency: Azzah Sultan!
The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York (FCINY), Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP), and Pioneer Works have entered a residency partnership that will bring one Pioneer Works (PW) artist to Finland for a three-month residency (January to April 2027) to HIAP on the historic island of Suomenlinna in Helsinki.
Two Sisters, 2022, Video, running time (00:01:58) by Azzah Sultan
Azzah Sultan received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MFA from Washington State University. She was born in Abu Dhabi and is a Malaysian native who grew up in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Bahrain, and has spent 14 years living in America, working on her artistic practice. She was an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works, MITU Hybrid Arts Lab, The Anderson Center, A Blue Farm; she has exhibited three solo shows at Trotter&Sholer gallery in New York and one solo show at Rissim Contemporary in Kuala Lumpur. She is currently a teaching artist in NYC and has a studio based in the Lower East Side.
“During this residency, I'll be exploring how memories get warped and remade over time, continuing my video series work “The Fabrication of Memory”. In these performance video pieces, I am superimposing my present self into archived footage of myself, alongside unsuspecting family members, trying to deceive them into believing that I belong in that timeline. The home video footage is from my childhood in Finland, and I haven't been back in 20 years.
I would like to explore this work through video, drawing, painting, journaling, and performance work. In an abstract realm, what I am seeking delves into universal themes of grieving one's childhood, exploring the intricate struggle to capture fleeting moments. This project explores the tension between the tangibility of what’s recorded and the intangible, yet deeply personal, memories intertwined with it.”
