Locale Inscribed (Walking in the desert with Eisa towards the sun, looking down)

Overview

In his work, Michael Joo interrogates science and technology in conversation with the history of art. His works generate a set of questions that examine the ongoing exchange between man and natural history.

Joo developed his commission for SB12 after researching fossilised remains, ancient irrigation systems and outmoded ways of living. But the work is also deeply tied to his existing practice and long dialogue with the land art of Robert Smithson, here referenced through an obviating of process, with visible layers pointing to a conversation with time.

Locale Inscribed (Walking in the desert with Eisa towards the sun, looking down) (2014–15) emerged from Joo’s site visits to Sharjah over the past year, which traversed various terrains to track archaeological patterns and traces of past human life through the universal act of walking – an act that bridges time and encourages deep contemplation of how early man negotiated survival, efficiency and pleasure. Joo’s site-specific work in a derelict warehouse near Port Khalid asks the public to perform the same act of walking. As they follow excavated pathways that recall falaj water channels, a reflective surface covering the entire main wall bears witness to their movement. Seen in the silver-nitrate-mirrored surface, the visitor is at once walking towards herself, leaving the past behind, and towards an unknown future, which incorporates that abandoned past.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 12