Jeddah. Contemporary art project space and gallery, Athr, on Thursday opened its doors to renowned Lebanese/British artist, Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s first solo exhibition in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The exhibition, entitled The Whole Truth, opened on 11 February, and is on until 13 of April, 2016.
The Whole Truth is centered on two bodies of work by the artist: The Whole Truth, 2012 and Beneath The Surface 2015. The theme of each is triggered by the current application of voice analysis as a lie detection method recently piloted by European, Russian and Israeli governments as well as being employed in border agencies and insurance companies all over the world. This technology uses the voice as a kind of stethoscope, an instrument to measure internal bodily responses to stress and tension; a material channel that allows the law’s listening to bypass speech and delve deeper into the body of its subjects.
The Whole Truth, 2012
(audio, lie detector, mirror, bench ) 32 minutes
At the core of this audiovisual installation is a documentary, which experiments with the conventions of radio. The documentary consists of a collection of interviews with software developers, anthropologists and entrepreneurs of the biometric industry, from the Netherlands, USA and elsewhere. To the listeners, it offers a fresh look into how truth is constituted, to whom truth matters and who can use it; simultaneously, it complicates the current conventions of testimony and its relationship to trauma, free speech, technology and the body.
Beneath The Surface, 2015
(loudspeaker, 7 panels painted with sound deadening paint "a coat of silence")
(loudspeaker, 7 panels painted with sound deadening paint "a coat of silence")
Beneath The Surface uses seven panels to articulate the seven verdicts presented by the lie detector. Abu Hamdan hand drew the pitch of the voice highlighting the micro-second in which the machine makes the verdict, emphasizing how this tiny moment produced by the machine can have a great effect on somebody’s life. By reproducing them by hand, Abu Hamdan reiterates the human behind the machines database decisions.
The voiceprints are presented as paintings as well as acoustic interventions into the space in which they are exhibited. The paintings are painted with an acoustically absorbent / sound deadening paint called “coat of silence” and are accompanied with the sound of chanting voices extracted from the lie detector, seeking to intensify the multi-sensory experience.
These paintings are newest articulation of Abu Hamdan’s body of work that explores the material, technological and political qualities of sound.
Abu Hamdan will also be exhibiting in Frankfurt at Portikus for his first solo exhibition in Germany from 13 February to 10 April, 2016. The exhibition, entitled Earshot, is comprised of a detailed acoustic analysis determining the death of two unarmed Palestinian teenagers shot by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. The study, led by Abu Hamdan in collaboration with the human rights organisation, Defence for Children International, and Forensic Architecture, a Goldsmiths College-based agency, disproves the soldier’s claims to have used rubber bullets. The exhibition lays out the evidence through an installation encompassing sound, photographic prints, and a video to reflect more broadly on the aesthetics of evidence and the politics of sound and silence.
Congratulation for the great post. Those who come to read your Information will find lots of helpful and informative tips. Classical Feng Shui
ReplyDelete