Farther Than the Eye Can See, 2012
Basma Alsharif
Farther Than the Eye Can See, 2012
Four channel video installation
19min
Produced by Sharjah Art Foundation and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture
Overview
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), March 16, 2012 — Sharjah Art Foundation will present Farther Than The Eye Can See, a new work by Kuwait-born artist Basma Alsharif from March 18 – May 18, 2012, in Bait Al Shamsi, Arts Area, Sharjah. The installation is commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and co-produced with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture as part of Alsharif’s 2011 artist residency at the Sharjah Art Foundation.
Over the course of 19 minutes, Farther Than The Eye Can See moves through various compositions that take place across a four channel video installation in a darkened room. While distancing us from events, characters and information, this video reflects on the impossibility of looking back while moving forward, and provides us with a physical experience of the information it presents.
Basma Alsharif’s work explores how we relate to and internalise the geo-political shifts that occur within our lifetimes and those we carry with us from past generations. Experimenting with multiple media, in single channel works as well as video installations, she uses the anonymous individual as a vehicle for navigating through political history and collective memory.
Alsharif is interested in how near and far away geo-political issues affect us physically or emotionally; how they can simultaneously affect us just as easily as we can disregard them. Using visual codes that weave us through forests of a carefully selected range of materials, her aim is to decentralise place, content and medium. There is never one point of focus in her work but instead an attempt to create spaces where facts, numbers, photographs, songs and language become interchangeable and ultimately manifest as information to be experienced rather than understood.
Sharjah Art Foundation President Hoor Al-Qasmi stated: 'It has been a great pleasure to work again with Basma Alsharif and to help her realise this new installation through our Artist Residency Programme. This is the second project Sharjah Art Foundation has commissioned from Basma the first, We Began by Measuring Distance, was shown in the 2009 Sharjah Biennial and was awarded the Jury Prize.'
Since 2007 Alsharif has worked between Chicago, Cairo, Amman, Beirut and Sharjah, developing works that attempt to reflect a multiplicity in vantage point and content. She has relied on the environments she lives in and experiences she has had to influence and drive these pieces. She looks at the unwritten language of how a landscape or urban environment functions: what defines and constitutes a place and how individuals relate to one another within and in relation to different places.
About the Artist
Basma Alsharif (b. Kuwait) received an MFA from the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago, specialising in photography, film and video. Since then, she has worked between Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Sharjah and Chicago. Alsharif’s work has been shown in exhibitions and film festivals internationally including: The Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Netherlands (2012), Transmediale, Germany (2012), VideoBrasil (2011), Forum Expanded at The Berlinale (2011), The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan (2011), 49th Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA (2011), Manifesta 8, Spain (2010), The Toronto International Film Festival, Canada (2010), The Contemporary Arts Centre of Southern Australia (2009), The Jerusalem Show, Palestine (2008), ARTEEAST Cinema East Film Festival, New York (2007) and The Palestine Film Festival in London, Chicago, Boston and Ann Arbor.
Alsharif received The Marion McMahon Award at the Images Festival in Toronto (2011) and the Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Arts Grant (2009-2010). Her video We Began By Measuring Distance won a Jury Prize at the 9th edition of the Sharjah Biennial (2009).
SHARJAH ART FOUNDATION MARCH PROGRAMME:
Farther Than The Eye Can See will be exhibited at Bait Al Shamsi on March 18, 2012 coinciding with Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual March Meeting. Taking place from March 17 - 19, 2012, March Meeting is an annual gathering of artists, art professionals and institutions concerned with the production and dissemination of art in the region and internationally.
March 8
What should I do to live in your life? An exhibition that introduces work by seven artists, all strangers to Sharjah, into a space that was originally a family home
March 16
Ziad Antar’s exhibition and book launch Portrait of a Territory
March 17
Screening of 1395 Days without Red an Artangel commission by Šejla Kamerić and Anri Sala in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers
March 18
Basma Alsharif’s exhibition Farther Than the Eye Can See
March 19
Revisiting Tarab an Evening of Music by Tarek Atoui
For further information on Sharjah Art Foundation and the March programme please visit www.sharjahart.org
About Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF):
Sharjah Art Foundation brings a broad range of contemporary art and cultural programmes to the communities of Sharjah, the UAE and the region. Since 2009 SAF has built on the history of cultural collaboration and exchange that began with the first Sharjah Biennial in 1993. Working with local and international partners, we create opportunities for artists and artistic production through our core initiatives that include the Sharjah Biennial, the annual March Meeting, residencies, production grants, commissions, exhibitions, research, publications and a growing collection. Our education and public programmes focus on building recognition of the central role art can play in the life of a community by promoting public learning and a participatory approach to art. Sharjah Art Foundation is funded by the Department of Culture and Information, Government of Sharjah.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Sharjah Art Foundation
Alyazeyah Al-Reyaysa
Public & Media Relations Officer
Tel: +971-6-544-4113, ext. 26
E: alyazeyah@sharjahart.org
FITZ & CO, New York
Meg Blackburn
Tel: +1 212-627-1455 x 225
E: meg@fitzandco.com