A multi screen projection exploring the relationship between the epic and the everyday, the way in which grand narratives and historical legacies touch upon personal stories. In this new work Al-Ani began with an investigation of the history of the oral storytelling tradition in Arabic literature, using the tales of the Arabian Nights as a starting point.
This work is a multi screen projection by the artist Jananne Al-Ani, exploring the relationship between the epic and the everyday, the way in which grand narratives and historical legacies touch upon personal stories
Filmed in Jordan in 2004, this is the first work by Jananne Al-Ani to feature her father. An earlier work, “A Loving Manâ€, bought by the Imperial War Museum in 1999, was a video installation of a memory game, as the artist, her three sisters and her mother voiced their recollections of a loving father and husband who was absent.
In this new work Al-Ani began with an investigation of the history of the oral storytelling tradition in Arabic literature, using the tales of the Arabian Nights as a starting point. The later elevation in Western culture by European scholars of these same tales forms the basis of this new multi-screen projection work. The different roles appointed to male and female storytellers and the contrast between the public arena and the private domestic space is also explored. Al-Ani again utilises memoirs from her family’s archive, in this instance recordings she made a number of years ago of her sisters in which they each recollect and reminisce about a visit their father had made to the UK.
This new installation is a co-commission by Film &Video Umbrella and Norwich Gallery, Norwich School of Art and Design.
Biography: Jananne Al-Ani was one of the curators of ‘The Veil’ exhibition organised by inIVA. She received the EAST award 2000. She has shown extensively internationally.
Jananne Al-Ani won the EAST Award in 2000
Commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella and Norwich Gallery Norwich School of Art and Design
Opening: Wednesday 10 November 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Lecture: Wednesday 10 November 2.30pm Duke Street Lecture Theatre
Jananne Al-Ani talks about her work
Richard Hylton on his curatorial practice
Mohamed Abdulla, curator of IN-BETWEENITY, Work Programmes for Iraqi Cultural Practitioners, as part of Contemporary Arab Representations at Witte de With, Rotterdam
Image: Untitled; Portrait, 1996 (1 of 5) DoubleDuratrans 25 x 20 cm. Cortesy Danielle Arnaud contemporary art, London
For further information, images and to arrange interviews please contact Gaynor Egan or Andrew Hunt at Norwich Gallery NSAD telephone +44 (0)1603 756247 (direct dial)
Norwich Gallery
Norwich School of Art & Design
St. George Street Norwich NR3 1BB
Hours: 10am – 5pm Admission Free