Testimonials
YARA + DAVINA
“We love making poetic, profound and playful art. We are so deeply committed to social practice; working with people and meaning making is embedded in our practice. Our expansive approach is so diverse because we are always responding to the site and context and thinking about who we are making work with and for.”
“Working alongside YARA + DAVINA on the commission ‘Goals’ has been an extremely rewarding experience. Their mission, to create thoughtful, impactful and engaging artworks using relatable and familiar tools and mediums, is a successful one. Their warmly responsive approach to engaging with our demographic, children and families, supported participants to feel confident and enabled them to make considered and nuanced contributions to the project. The highly generative, productive and genuine approach both Yara and Davina (individually and as a duo) have to developing and delivering socially engaged artworks and projects means they seamlessly blend a practical and pragmatic approach to delivering innovative and imaginative concepts – an absolute dream to work with!”
Polly South - South London Gallery
“YARA + DAVINA brim with ideas of generosity, care and intrigue. They developed Make Time for Love with Metal Liverpool, finding friends wherever they went, and delving into the nooks and crannies of conversations, places and daily life to create artworks that were celebratory, full of heart and loved by those who encountered them.”
Susie Thornberry, Director of Metal
“Working with YARA + DAVINA was nothing short of a delight!
UP Projects commissioned YARA + DAVINA in 2023 to deliver a series of engagement workshops with communities in Blackheath, London exploring the theme of change and how we deal with change - not only in our neighbourhoods and built environments, but also in our lives more generally.
Their engagement activities were creative, undertaken with care and resulted in people of all generations contributing to the development of the final public artworks.
We would not hesitate to work with them again should there be the opportunity to.”
Moira Lascelles. Executive Director & Head of Partnerships,
UP Projects
"The 'ORACLES' project at Dulwich Picture Gallery has been a tremendous success from invention to delivery. YARA + DAVINA genuinely included everyone - community members, staff, volunteers, funders - in the process. Working with them is joyful and enriching; they bring inspiring creativity to every aspect of their brilliant practice."
Jennifer Scott, Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery
“YARA + DAVINA are fascinating artists whose deep consideration of the world we live in and ability to create searching questions and intriguing provocations engender genuine engagement. Their ability to hold delicate conversations coupled with a strong sense for creating visual objects and iconography turns even the most mundane aspects of our life into portals of possibility. Their Moral Compass project helped diverse individuals with vastly differing world views find routes into a difficult and charged, yet fundamental question for our society.”
Simon Chatterton, Director of 101 Outdoor Arts