Bani Abidi
dal 10/11/2011 al 11/2/2012
Segnalato da
10/11/2011
Bani Abidi
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Working with photography, video and drawing, the Pakistani artist looks at manifestations of state power and resilience in civil society. In this exhibition she is presenting Section Yellow, comprising the film The Distance from Here along with several photographic series. The collective expression of patience and silence is a powerful metaphor in her work, as is the idea of crossing thresholds from one place to another.
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead presents the first UK solo public
exhibition of Pakistani artist Bani Abidi. Predominately working with photography and video,
Abidi’s work highlights the changing parameters of nationhood and citizenship. The artist
draws our attention to the relational, often sensitive space, between the citizen, the state and
the individual. The body of work Section Yellow comprises a film and a series of interrelated
photographs.
The Distance from Here 2010, a central work in the exhibition, is a video that pans between
two distinct environments; the sanitised interior of a generic waiting room and a vast outdoor
ground circumscribed by security scanners, guards and surface markings. In both locations
a crowd of people quietly assembles and waits their turn, although for what one doesn’t
entirely know. Abidi develops a play on coercion and control, using migration and the
movement of people as a subtle metaphor. Ambient sounds form the mood of the work: the
deadly stasis and mechanical noise of the waiting area tannoy contrast with the sound of
dawn in the world outside.
Abidi’s recent photographic work, Untitled, One of Two and Two of Two, all 2010
compliment the film. With the series Untitled, mundane plastic and paper folders, stuffed
thick with stamped copies of personal documents form a horizon. Text and image combine
to create narratives of endurance, of longing and resignation. These works contrast with the
enlarged passport photograph One of Two, that makes for a more intimate encounter,
showing the haunted expression of an old man.
Abidi’s ongoing series of digital drawings look at various types of surveillance architecture in
Pakistan. Class disparity and the protectionist nature of gated homes are examined in
Intercommunication Devices 2009, while Security Barriers A-L, 2008 shows security
barriers found outside foreign embassies and government buildings in Karachi. Isolated from
their context of use, both of these series embody hierarchies of power and partial, or
selective, communication.
The collective expression of patience and silent resilience is a powerful metaphor throughout
Abidi’s work. She generates an atmosphere that evokes the personal, domestic and the
familiar, set against the larger tectonic forces associated with nationhood and citizenship
within Pakistan today.
Bani Abidi was born in 1971, Karachi, Pakistan and divides her practice between New Delhi
and Karachi. She graduated from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan in 1994
and completed her Master’s from the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1999.
Press contact:
Ann Cooper, Head of Communications T: 0191 440 4915 E: annc@balticmill.com
Nikki Johnson, Communications Assistant T: 0191 440 4912 E: nikkij@balticmill.com
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays, South Shore Road, Gateshead, NE8 3BA, UK
OPENING TIMES: Open Daily 10.00–18.00 except Tuesdays 10.30–18.00
Admission free