Shezad Dawood: Anthropology of Chance opens at OCAT Xian As a first solo exhibition in China, Shezad Dawood’s exhibition presents a full range of the artist’s works. The experimental films and paintings included share in common a layering of images that are drawn from anthropology and archaeology, the broad history of film and from the artist’s own childhood. Within these still and moving assemblages, the unexpected juxtapositions which are produced allow for an open reading of the works, both of the possible narratives and themes upon which they might centre. Three pieces involve the artist’s signature Saami textiles, each using antique textile to different effect. Through Pierced Flesh and Skin of Dreams is an installation of five panels suspended in series from the ceiling so that equal attention can be paid to the front and the back of each panel work. For The Melancholy Departure of 7669, the textiles form the screens upon which the moving images are projected achieving a poetic interweaving with projected imagery. The images that flow over each of the three panels take their cue from the cuneiform symbols that represent fish, sun and god, which are in turn inspired by the elements of water, fire and air. These are taken from existing archival sources and the artist’s archive of moving images and stills accumulated in recent years and in locations as diverse as Syria, Easter Island, Mexico, Morocco and Hawaii. For Video Avebury, the latest example of Dawood’s painting and printing overlay technique, the textile functions as the canvas. e-flux/announcements/shezad-dawood-3/
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:00:00 +0000
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