Something is Possible

Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles

February 10 - March 17, 2007

Curator: mounir fatmi

 

You can find the catalog at this link:

www.amazon.com/dp/B08VJ6X3P9

 

Shoshana Wayne Gallery is pleased to present its first exhibition of work by mounir fatmi. mounir fatmi constructs visual spaces and linguistic games that aim to free the viewer from their preconceptions of politics and religion, and allow them to contemplate these and other subjects in new ways. His videos, installations, drawings, paintings and sculptures bring to light our doubts, fears and desires. They directly address the current events of our world, and serve to both explicate the origins and symptoms of global issues, as well as speak to those whose lives are affected by specific events.

The exhibition “Something is Possible”, gathers together a series of artworks in diverse media that ask the viewer to search for hope within often terrifying and difficult subjects. His sculptural installations using massive amounts of antenna cable inherently reference the transmission of information and the worldwide communications network. His severing and rejoining of the cables hints at the underlying media censorship, where gaps in information become gaps in public knowledge and understanding. In a similar manner, his sculptures formed out of VHS cassettes reference the bombardment of media through incessant duplication and repetition. In the most overtly political work of the exhibition, flags of each of the G8 countries, which act as visually symbolic icons of the enormous power held by these nations, are relegated to mere adornments atop push-brooms; both a tool of the common worker and a reminder of those affected by the decisions of the group.

mounir will also be exhibiting a new version of his installations using equestrian jumping bars; “obstacles”, both figurative and literal, which force the breakdown of pre-existent physical and psychological barriers. The obstacles operate on many levels, at once speaking to the distances between the Middle East and the West while simultaneously touching on the similarities in origins of traditions shared by these seemingly disparate nations and peoples. The traditional dichotomies of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, are torn apart, disallowing us to cast such narrow dispersions on complex topics. As a result, the interpretive possibilities offered to the viewer are vastly multiplied.

 

Shoshana Wayne Gallery, February 2007