Transmission

Sculptures and installation view

Transmission_ Ostrich Foot Mirror, White Bronze, Gooseneck Metal, Rear Mirror, H86”x W7”x D12”
Transmission_ Ostrich Stamp, Wood, Acrylic, H34”x W24”
Transmission_ Eldorado, Golden Leaves, mini Fridge, Couscous, Bananas, Metal, Snow Boots, H60”x W18”x D18”

Transmission Project Overview:
Transmission is an installation that includes two sculptures, one painting, one video and one performance.  This body of work investigates the politics of memory in Postcolonial France.  Being the first generation born in France to an Algerian matriarchal refugee from the Algerian war of independence, this piece moves through a fictional interior and a series of actions, displaced from their meaningful purpose as a mean to activate the sculptural installation and create a connection from the domestic scale to the socio-political scale.  

Ostrich Foot Mirror:
With this sculpture, I was thinking through Henri Bergson's theory of time that states that duration is ineffable and can only be shown indirectly through images that can never reveal a complete picture.  The gaze of this sculpture seek to explore how the past cohabits the present and drives the future.

Ostrich Stamp:
This piece is a negative space.  The design of this stamp was issued in Algeria under French colonial rule.  Algeria’s ancestral culture is often reduced to an exotic cliche in western culture, or, worse, as a breeding ground for terrorism.

Transmission video (15 min):
The 15 min video on the TV monitor displays an archival footage of the official recognition of the Algerian War of Independence at the French assembly in 2000, 38 years after its ending, mixed with the transmission of a popular nationalist music TV show.  

Transmission Performance:
​Transmission, is a body of work that investigate the politics of memory in Postcolonial France, regarding the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962).  The core of my art practice addresses the idea of the dislocated body, the alienated body and the disruption in the casual or mundane world. My work considers the relationship of the social world to the private, psychological one.  This piece is a good depiction of my interests, as we are exposed to the stretch between the domestic scale to the government's scale.  I believe in Henri Bergson's time theory that duration is ineffable and can only be shown indirectly through images that can never reveal a complete picture.  It can only be grasped through a simple intuition of the imagination.  How does the past cohabits with the present through the context of this installation and through this character's behavior?