Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
TheSpace@inIVA, London
16 October – 22 November
Reviewed by: Lisa Wigham
This is a short film set in public and private spaces in Lahore, Karachi and London which reveals a number of personal stories, in light of the quote by President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan. The president promised to provide nuclear weapons for his country's defence, even if the cost to its people would mean "eating grass". As the film crosses continents, it presents questions on the implications of this statement on both personal and political levels. In Pakistan, a scene was filmed in a market place as people carried out their daily business. They appeared and faded from view through their own movement and timelapse recording. In the film's soundtrack a number of stories are spoken in English and Urdu by one woman, whose voice overlaps, merges, repeats and envelops itself. In both the image and sound I fought to decipher what had been masked over, and its significance, because something in the cacophony was intriguing. From the market place, the camera had moved to a courtyard, a home, and places where abstractions of people were flickering and ghostly in their environments. In these fleeting images and tentatively presented words were moments of tenderness, pain, fear and dreams.
In London, there is a scene on a busy street; people appear in timelapse motion, and Asian members of the public are focused upon among the crowds. This is London on a dark rainy night with ruthless traffic and ruthless pedestrians breathing out smoke in the cold air. Something from the cyclical voice-over reminds me of the initial sequence, a mosque's call to prayer, its tape recording being broken, meanwhile the light from a BT telephone box or café interior offers no comfort, and the cross-cultural mapping continues, recording histories that surround such diaspora.
Writer detail:
Lisa Wigham is a filmmaker and
visual artist.
Venue detail:
Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA)
Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BE
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