Mariah Lookman: Victory over Tyranny, 05 Mar 2016 — 12 May 2016
Exhibitions

Mariah Lookman: Victory over Tyranny

For the exhibition Victory over Tyranny Pakistani artist Mariah Lookman delves into iconographies of violence. Her exhibition – featuring entirely new works made, for instance, of video collages, disused bank notes, an artist book or an embroidered shawl – examines historical and current representations of war and violence as well as forms of resistance. The works touch upon seemingly divergent aspects and topics such as ‘The Great Seal of England, 1648,’ American President Harry Truman’s announcement of the Bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, or contemporary video games. While immersive and at times confrontational, the exhibition also encompasses poetic and analytical facets, enabling viewers to explore ethical questions related for example, to states of exception in warfare as discussed in the works of Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, or Carl Schmitt.

In conceiving the works Mariah Lookman has activated a wide ensemble of references, ranging from military documents, vernacular materials on war, conflict, and violence, or historical works of other artists and poets. She has gathered thematically relevant audio and video footage from the Web to create collages of sound and moving images. These allow the viewer to examine the different aspects of the representation of power, military and the other that all share in common some aspect of the timeless theme of the virtuous versus the evil. A central question concerns how media transmit, reproduce, and alter the imagery of violence, and the kinds of information and effects implied by it. In her work, the artist rearranges and re-contextualizes the various materials at the base of her research in order to recalibrate seemingly unrelated materials within a field of simultaneous politico-ethical relevancy. Lookman herself has stated:
“When we gaze at these images [of war, weapons and violence] with an often unacknowledged sense of wonder, does the distance created by the media continually shift the violence that accompanies technological accomplishment into the distant realm of sublime? What kind of geometries and spaces do these images create? And why can’t I stop watching?”

The overall, two-part exhibition includes three video works, objects, collages, prints, and an artist book. The exhibition will be shifted by early April entailing the partial substitution of works with new ones. This shift will reconfigure the works’ relationships, create alternative aesthetic constellations and reorient the visitor’s experiences in space. The artist will also present a new twin-set of editions entitled Lale‘/Lori: “Lale’”, meaning ‘poppy’ or ‘red’ in Urdu, or ‘wild-lily ofthe-mountains’ in Persian, and “Lori” designating a lullaby both in Urdu and Persian. For the second part Lookman will present a new edition entitled Red Eagle.

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