Originally posted on May 23, 2016 by Atif F. Sheikh & Kira Anderson
“For all its risks and possible dangers, making meaning of loss is a necessary art, one that for us also creates constructive, even ethical, possibilities for living in (and not just despite) such an unsteady world.”
Rev. Dr. Hal Taussig
As artists seriously get into showing the mirror to society, the audience realizes that in most cases where change is needed, reality is ʻuglyʼ. Blood stains, death, war, dishonesty, corruption in politics, separation, racism are all painful situations that scream out to be acknowledged. When that is dealt with in contemporary art we witness creative ways of expression that can help heal and transform. Experiences of trauma and loss, the transformation of the artist himself or herself—culminating in an interpretation of that trauma within their art, causing an empathetic understanding in the viewer of things that surround us but what we conveniently evade—is what the exhibition Lived Experience is about.
Expressions of grief without resorting to violence can have the power to expose our collective human ties and responsibilities; in the words of Judith Butler: “[in grieving] are we returned to a sense of human vulnerability, to our collective responsibility for the physical lives of one another?” The artists in this exhibition have interpreted grief, trauma and loss in their own diverse ways, but they all converge on the ability to understand our own responsibilities in creating the sense of loss as well as our power to do something about it.
Boloʼs Saks Afridi and Qinza Najm have re-created contentious man-made borders from around the world in the form of floor installations on which the viewer can walk. This challenges the status quo of international borders by letting individuals disturb the boundaries. While each piece alludes to a specific geographical border, “[t]he inspiration of the work comes from both our global experiences of moving from country to country over the course of our lives. You can say we’ve spent our lives crossing borders.” (Bolo, about Ghosts of Empire). The realities of the borders are indeed different from that imagined by Boloʼs installation, but the work puts into full view the possibilities of change and transformation. Not only does the installation serve as an enactment of a rejection of oppressive borders, it also brings to attention the historical arbitrary nature of many of these borders. As people walk atop the work, changing it as they please, they are also perhaps reminded of how the actual borders were created and of the trauma inflicted upon those who endured them.
Vered Snearʼs Trauma/Drama is a complex work on many levels of interpretation, be it on the level of the performers in the video, the viewers, or the artist. Additionally, there are interpretations inherent in the piece itself that critique the socio-political situation in Israel/Palestine; using the tunnels under Israeli/Palestinian control lines as the device, Snear creates a narrative of ʻtraumaʼ. The trauma in question was captured in a Youtube video posted by an Israeli girl, who expresses her anxiety about Palestinians. Snear has deconstructed her monologue by having multiple performers ʻperformʼ the original text, and thus challenges us to see her fear or trauma in a new light. “The re-performance of her script portrays and reflects the ʻtraumatizedʼ, as if there were a traumatic registry within cultural memory to draw from, de-masking trauma as part of an ideological formed condition that exceeds the experience of an individual.” (statement, Trauma/Drama). Deconstructed in this way, does the trauma still maintain its one-sided narrative or is the audience also forced to see the invisible other sideʼs trauma?
Julius John Alam has created melancholic shrines to the victims of senseless violence in Pakistan—particularly the victims of the notorious blasphemy law that is used against powerless and innocent people. In “The Dead Keep Silence,” Alam has created for each victim in the news, a book made of fabric that has been covered in ash as a remembrance of murders by burning. Most of the blasphemy cases involve allegations of burning Islamic holy texts, although Alamʼs books have no text, opening up a world of interpretations. Alamʼs other work in this show is the text piece ʻThe candle kept burningʼ written with charcoal to give the impression of ash, under a lit candle. The ash represents the burned victim Shama and her husband. Shama also translates to ʻcandleʼ. As Shama burned and continues to burn, this work speaks directly to our inaction. Julius states about his recent work, “I simply want to nurture a goodness which is a fragile and powerless everyday care for other human beings.”
All the contemporary works of art in this exhibition interact with each other at critical junctions of international historical and cultural markers in time. Each artist has reacted to their own processing of trauma, noticed their reaction to the awareness of othersʼ trauma, and subsequently slowed the process down into their resultant artworks that offer the audience an aesthetic, less traumatic and at times nurturing chance to confront otherwise unpalatable situations with a sense of spaciousness.
Lived Experiences was on view from May 19 – June 15, 2016 at Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia. Atif Farooq Sheikh is co-founder of 12G and resident curator. Sheikh orchestrated the first 12G experimental video art festival and co-curated the first perform(art)ive, a contemporary performance art biennial in 2015 in Philadelphia. Kiira Anderson earned a BA from the University of Vermont, where she was a student of John William Seyller. Her senior projects included an installation titled Offering that was inspired by time spent at the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia in Delhi, as well as a research paper on modern calligraphic painting in/نیاز Pakistan. In January 2012, she started producing show cards and writing for Twelve Gates Arts, and she is currently residing at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center in Vermont.