Jonny Farrow: Myth, Nowhat?

Tashkeel presents first solo: Jonny Farrow – “Myth, Nowhat?” at Tashkeel, house 10, Al Fahidi Historical District.  The exhibition is a culmination of several years work stemming from ideas of history, heritage, how it is constructed, presented, and perpetuated, centered on the legends of the 18th to early 19th century American long-hunter-pioneer-explorer-land surveyor Daniel Boone, and the long shadow his legend casts in the artist’s home state, Kentucky, USA.

The series of works represent a consistent engagement in Farrow’s practice with the subject of the creation of America, Americanism, and the resulting domestic wars and forced migrations caused by internal colonial ambition. For “Myth, Nowhat?” the artist uses the re-presentation of Boone and the idealogy of Kentucky that has calcified around his legend, along with the presentation of specific images, songs, rituals, sport, and historical sites that are tied to the locality. Each element perpetuates a dialogue with the normalized function of the self-interested corporate-state-culture machine, which wants to be, and often appears to be, seamless and invisible. Situated within Dubai’s historical district and within a heritage site or house, the specificity of the content reaches across cultures, asking “Myth, Nowhat?” or “What is your history, building?”