Kate Holford

A Present Disturbance, Monya Riachi

2026, curation and essay for solo exhibition by Monya Riachi, Boardroom Committee Room, Glasgow

A Present Disturbance was a solo exhibition by the Lebanese artist Monya Riachi, part of the Boardroom Committee Room programme for 2026. The exhibition “br[ought] forth a tension between living and memorialising, through an investigation of the symbol and matter of the poppy flower. [Riachi] asks ‘How do we remember into the future? In the present tense?’”

As part of the curatorial support for this project, I was commissioned by Monya to write an extended essay on her practice.

Read the essay in full here.

Artist: Monya Riachi
Additional contributions: Mary-Ann Awada, Yasmina El Chami
Curator: Kate Holford
Technician: Scott Leeming
Photographs: Angus Mackinnon
Editorial support: Mina Heydari-Waite & Grace Jackson

Supported by funding from The Hope Scott Trust and The Eaton Fund.