MARY SALEH AKA GOLDCOASTMARY

Her artistic practice is shaped by a life lived across cultures and continents. Time spent along Australia’s sun-drenched Gold Coast and within the vibrant, ever-shifting energy of Bangkok has left a lasting imprint on her visual language, informing a sensibility attuned to culture, rhythm, and atmosphere. Music plays a central role in this context, as a unifying force and a carrier of memory.

Growing up in Germany in the 1990s, her visual and emotional vocabulary was deeply influenced by music, lyrics, and youth culture. School environments were defined by distinct identities and social circles shaped by sound and style, from grunge and metal to rap, soul, and the early house and techno scenes. These cultural codes continue to resonate in her work today.

The act of repetition carries a formative reference, recalling the ritual of writing lines as a form of discipline, widely known from pop culture through Bart Simpson’s classroom punishments. In her work, this gesture is recontextualized. What once functioned as correction becomes affirmation, reflection, and at times quiet contradiction.

Her early series can be understood as an homage to the pioneers of rap and spoken rhythm, including artists such as Ice Cube and Grandmaster Flash, whose work established new forms of lyrical expression and narrative voice.

At the same time, her references extend beyond genre, drawing on timeless compositions such as The Girl from Ipanema, reinterpreted through the lens of her own travels, including a recent stay in Rio de Janeiro.

Mary lives and works in Zurich.