PREVIEW INVITATION
Haig Aivazian, All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes, film still, 2021. Commissioned as part of The Consortium Commissions, a project initiated by Mophradat. Courtesy of the artist.
Join us next week for the preview of Haig Aivazian:
All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes
Tuesday 25 January, 6.30-8.30pm
Book HERE
Bringing together new iterations of Aivazian’s long-term research surrounding surveillance strategies in public space, the exhibition includes a new presentation of the eponymous video essay, All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes, in which Aivazian opens up reflections upon the use of light to spot, invigilate and make visible; as well as its use as a tool to divert attention.
Haig Aivazian, All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes, film still, 2021. Commissioned as part of The Consortium Commissions, a project initiated by Mophradat. Courtesy of the artist.
Tracing the public administration of light and darkness as a policing strategy, All of your Stars... focuses as much on where light is shed as on what is purposely left in the dark. The video is comprised of found footage and material from the artist’s own phone, creating an associative genealogy from whale oil lamps to gas lanterns to LED bulbs; from blackouts to curfews. Layering, splicing, and confronting these disparate sources of sound and image, Aivazian generates a sensorial meditation on how the fundamentals of human vision - light hitting the retina - have been mechanised into tools that capture our movements, be it in everyday life or on screen.
Haig Aivazian, All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes, film still, 2021. Commissioned as part of The Consortium Commissions, a project initiated by Mophradat. Courtesy of the artist.
Presented alongside will be Aivazian’s recent visual essay Prometheus, 2019. Mobilising a mode of non-linear narrative address, the film draws geopoetic parallels between two events, both occurring in the early 1990s: taking the first Gulf War as one point of departure, and the presence of the United States basketball team - nicknamed the 'Dream Team' - at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona as another. The work presents paradigm shifts in hard and soft power, exploring how fire has been mobilised since its theft from the heights of Mount Olympus to its unleashing on the oil fields of Kuwait as Iraq withdrew in the face of the United States. Fire travels through the work as a protagonist; tracing the long history of technicity and its weaponisation.
Haig Aivazian, Prometheus, film still, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
The films loop alternately in the installation; and both will play three times over the course of the opening night. Please note there will be a maximum capacity of 10 people in the space at one time, with additional capacity in the Studio space upstairs throughout the evening.
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Haig Aivazian, Prometheus, film still, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition continues 26 January – 19 March 2022
Open Wednesday-Saturday, 12-5pm
Book HERE
All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes is commissioned as part of The Consortium Commissions, a project initiated by Mophradat. All of the Lights, the first presentation of Aivazian’s new project, was presented by The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 2021.
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