Overview
Watch Tower is a two-story sculpture that was built entirely on location in the atrium of Sharjah Art Museum for Sharjah Biennial 9. The tower structure, which rose through the stairwell of the building to the first floor, was accompanied by a series of large paintings.
Amir Fallah’s huge tower hosted a vast array of items – memorabilia, documents, sculptures, vases, potted plants, cacti and trinkets, both found and fabricated by the Artist. Some of the pieces were made by the Artist in his studio in Los Angeles, while others were found in Sharjah’s souks. The paintings that surrounded the central sculpture depicted fantastical tower structures, which Fallah described as blueprints or construction plans.
Reminiscent of makeshift childhood forts, Watch Tower encapsulates a personal narrative and acts as a pseudo-shrine to Fallah’s past, present and future. The installation explores the transitory and fragile nature of memory and monument, destiny and dreams. It also seeks to challenge conceptions of artefact and authenticity, and to blur the lines between imagined and actual landscapes.
This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 9