Biennial Bytes

What are the ways through which cinema can seek the truth and respond to the times? In a world where evidence has ceased to matter, what is the role of the documentary?   To find out, listen to Amar Kanwar in conversation with SB15  curator Hoor Al Qasimi. For SB15, Kanwar installed a seven-channel film installation called The Peacock’s Graveyard. The project turns to folklore and traditional forms of storytelling and comments on the current climate of totalitarianism and violence.  Kanwar’s film is on view at till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online. Press play to learn more about Kanwar’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can artistic techniques capture invisible phenomena such as movement and magic? What are the ways in which can traditional practices be reinterpreted within contemporary art? To find out, listen to Abdulrahim Salem in conversation with SB15  curator Hoor Al Qasimi. At SB15, Salem presented a live painting performance called An Unknown Sailor set to a traditional Emirati sea shanty sung by singers who accompanied pearl divers. The work acknowledges how during the colonial period, the sea was also occupied, as trade routes and supply chains came under foreign control. The painting Salem made during the performance now is on view in Kalba. Salem’s work is on view at till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online. Press play to learn more about Salem’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can the distortion of language resist oppressive power structures? In what ways can depicting the body reveal and defy social strictures? To find out, listen to Mithu Sen in conversation with SB15  curator Hoor Al Qasimi. At Sharjah, Sen installed a mixed-media installation called I am from there. I am from here (2023) at the Calligraphy Square. The work takes the form of a poem, in a script that resembles Arabic calligraphic forms but is in fact entirely fictional. Made using a combination of synthetic hair as well as Sen’s own, the text also includes emojis - and seems to allude at once to the expectations, possibilities and limits of communication.  Sen’s work is on view at till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online. Press play to learn more about Sen’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes her work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can gardens become spaces for healing and community? Can plantations become sites for challenging exploitation and the vestiges of colonialism?  To find out, listen to Annalee Davis in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi. At Sharjah, Davis grew a medicinal garden made using plants, herbal knowledge and gardening practices from around the world. The work, called Pray to Flowers — A Plot of Disalienation (2023) and made in collaboration with artist and gardener Yoeri Guépin, critiques colonial cultivation as well as the misuse of land due to globalisation. Davis’ work is on view at Bait Al Hurma courtyard in Al Mureijah Square till 11 June 2023.Click here to view it online. Press play to learn more about Davis’ practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can images bring to life the narratives of labour and materials which make up the story of modernity? In what ways do western ideas of development influence representation of urban life around the globe? To find out, listen to Archana Hande in conversation with SB15  curator Hoor Al Qasimi. At Sharjah, Archana installed two works — an interactive installation called Weaving Light at Al Hamriyah Studios and an animated film called All is Fair in Magic White at Sharjah Art Museum. Weaving Light is a large-scale hollow cube made up of punching cards once used in 19th century handlooms in Bengaluru. It also features objects found in textile factories, a set of research materials and a film. All is Fair in Magic White comprises an animated film and a series of painted block prints. The film parodies the depiction of Mumbai as a global city by drawing attention to its inequalities and divisions. Hande’s works are on view at Al Hamriyah Studios and Sharjah Art Museum till 11 June 2023. Click here to view them online. Press play to learn more about Hande’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens to a Black body when it stops being weighed down by forces of oppression and is freed from gravity? Can the result be Black rhapsody?  To find out, listen to Kambui Olujimi in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi At Sharjah, Olujimi installed an immersive, site-specific work called In The Dark, We Lose Our Edges (2023) comprising sculpture, sound and painting. The installation references colonial printing processes, Congolese masks and mazes with many routes, to propose the ways in which bodies might defy gravity and take flight. Olujimi’s works are on view at The Flying Saucer till 11 June 2023. Click here to view them online. Press play to learn more about Olujimi’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How does referencing art of the past reveal social and economic realities that affect us in the present?  What does it mean when objects and symbols of historical oppression are subverted by contemporary artists and citizens? To find out, listen to this episode recorded before Sharjah Biennial 15 opened, where Yinka Shonibare is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi. In Sharjah, Shonibare  recreated eleven of London’s public statues and painted them in Dutch wax or batik fabric patterns. The work, called Decolonial Structures (2022), is a reminder of the violent legacies of once-powerful figures memorialised like this.  All works are on view at Old Al Diwan Al Amiri till 11 June 2023. Click here to view them online. Press play to learn more about Shonibare’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How does the use of irony undermine oppressive modes of representation? How can art draw attention to the ways in which historical ways of seeing continue into the present? To find out, listen to this episode recorded on the occasion of Sharjah Biennial 15, where Joiri Minaya is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi. In Sharjah, Joiri presented multiple works — a series called Redecode comprising patterned wallpapers showing pixelated colonial representations of the tropics (2015, 2018); Spandex Installations (2022-2023) that organises space in a way that makes it difficult for viewers to move around, and Labadee (2017), a film that explores how the Caribbean tourism industry operates in ways that continue colonial exploitation. All works are on view at Old Al Jubail Vegetable Market till 11 June 2023. Click here to view them online. Press play to learn more about Minaya’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How is the social sphere linked to the ecological? What are the ways in which radical politics can be expressed in cinematic language? To find out, listen to this episode, recorded on the occasion of Sharjah Biennial 15, where John Akomfrah is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi. In Sharjah, Akomfrah installed three works (all 2023) —Arcadia, a multi-screen film about the violence of historical and economic systems, Becoming Wind, a five-channel video called that references the myth of the garden of Eden, and Wounding Light a series of images called that combines landscape photography with historical painting. All works are on view in Al Mureijah Square till 11 June 2023. Click here to view them online. Press play to learn more about Akomfrah’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place. To receive updates about the  15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What are the ways in which identity gets stereotyped and commodified in visual media? Can art draw on diverse histories to express solidarities in the present?  To find out, listen this episode, recorded before Sharjah Biennial 15 opened, where Hassan Hajjaj is in conversation with SB15  curator Hoor Al Qasimi. At Sharjah, Hajjaj shows a documentary film called Gnawa Capoeira Brothahood (2022). Tracing the historical similarities between a Moroccan performance art called Gnawa and a Brazilian martial art called Capoeira, the film is on view at Bait Al Serkal, Sharjah till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online. Press play to learn more about Hajjaj’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.  To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.