The Evolution of the Angel in Line with the State of Exception

Overview

The Evolution of the Angel in Line with the State of Exception, features a series of photos that act as portraits of angels. Here the artist seems to resort to photography as a genre seen sometimes, albeit superficially, to embody the objective perspective of modern science.

A style, in other words, that defines its 'raison d'être' not so much in terms of its produvtion of authentic visuality, but by its ability to map reliable, political geographies acquired by individual artists through personal, archaeological excavations of knowledge. Thus the series contains a number of accompanying descriptions: Homo-Outcast Angelus (archaeological excavation on Auschwitz site, Poland, 1939; Homo-Embargo Angelus (archaelogical excavation on Gaza Strip site, 2007); Homo-Subjugate Angelus (archaelogical excavation on Omarska site, Bosnia, 1992); Homo-Bare Angelus (archaeological excavation on Guantanamo site, Cuba, 2002); Homo-Exile Angelus (archaelogical excavation on Archipelago Gulag site, Russia, 1918), and so on.

By investing this 'homos-angelus' with a binomial nomenclature-the scientific method of ranking the entire known natural world by genus and species types, and so also furnishing the taxonomy with a sophisticated political typology and a temporal intensity-Davitian groups his various branches and rankings, organising them into a genealogical tree, which he suggestively labels 'Governance'. Governing elites throughout the world are known to evade legal responsibility for their actions and decisions, remaining exterior to the otherwise valid, common juridical orders of their specific contexts.

The alibi for this state of exception is their plea for the state of the emergency, which is conveniently enacted during periods of war and civil unrest, but also in times of peace. As such, that political extension, where power is held and constituted as Agamben warns us, is not just a contained and delimited space, but a regime of a much broader order; one that defines the rule of the law within, of which the norm is the state of exception/emergency. And one that, through the disciplinary control achieved by bio-power's appropriate technologies, so to speak, creates the 'dolcile bodies' that human beings are known to have become.

Installation in collaboration with Neda Saeedi.


April 2011

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 10

Co-produced by Sharjah Art Foundation