My Father’s House:
the architecture of cultural heritage Further Press Information
30th October – 11th December 2010
As an exhibition, initially commissioned by the British Council for a tour of the Gulf States and Arabian Peninsula, My Father’s House approaches the subject of cultural identity from the inside out. The show hopes to remind its audiences to look at the spaces they inhabit, and engage in the debate about development of their built environment, to ensure that it reflects a true sense of their personal and communal identity. Architecture is the physical evidence of the narrative of a society – it both reflects and defines cultural identity – and the new cities of the Gulf region are confident and bold expressions of intent and ambition. Given the region’s nomadic and trading past, and its oral tradition of story-telling, perhaps it is inevitable that, rather than preserving structures in order to maintain a sense of continuity from past to present to future, as Gulf societies evolve they instead renew and re-invent themselves cyclically, every generation or decade, perhaps even more rapidly now. My Father’s House contemplates, from more personal viewpoints, the representations that these societies are maintaining and constructing of, and for, themselves, exploring how they choose to imagine themselves. While their projects aren’t necessarily nostalgic for the past, the artists do, from their particular perspectives, observe how the language of architectural heritage is being used in a contemporary context. They consider the ownership of cultural identity, and show that it is located not just in the traditional tourist sites of monuments and museums, nor in those new public edifices of Gulf society - the hotels, shopping malls and residential complexes but in the private, everyday spaces in-between. Ultimately, whether explicitly or implicitly, the artists in My Father’s House ask of their viewer, “Where and how does a nation, a city, a community or an individual locate its sense of self? Where do we see our own sense of cultural identity in the built environment around us? What part of our heritage best conveys the memory and the story of us?”
Wed Abduljawad, Once upon a Time, 2008 For this project, Wed Abduljawad used the most archaic form of photographic equipment, the pin-hole camera, which has no lens but simply allows light through a tiny ‘pin-hole’ onto the photographic plate or paper. The resulting Images, with their vintage quality and dynamic perspectives, describe the nature and decline of Balad, the historic district of the port city of Jeddah. By fusing these images with recordings of the personal recollections of the inhabitants of this once lively, now neglected area, Wed alerts us to the loss not only of the tangible heritage of architecture, but also the intangible heritage of oral history. Both elements have been essential to the social structure of life in Jeddah, a crossroads of cultural influences, where personal stories and ideas have traditionally been exchanged. But in the relentless desire for the latest goods and products, who now is going to listen to, appreciate, or preserve Saudi Arabia’s past? Wed Abduljawad was born in 1982, in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where she now lives and works.
Hafiz Ali, Once upon a Time, 2008 Hafiz Ali meditates on the contemporary medium of story-telling: cinema is not only a channel of cultural influence, but also, and particularly in Qatar, the architecture of the movie-theatres themselves has shaped and changed social habits. Hafiz’s short documentary film recounts the history of cinema in Qatar, from its introduction in the 1940s, with open-air screenings staged by oil companies for their workers (and therefore a men-only activity), to the plush theatres now incorporated into every shopping mall (making it an acceptable leisure activity for families and women). Moreover, the films themselves introduced new role-models and symbols, vistas and dreams to Qatari society, from Egyptian epics depicting historical figures of Arab pride such as Antar ibin Shaddad, to Western epics such as Titanic depicting romance and escape. Hafiz Ali was born in 1973, in Doha, Qatar, where he now lives and works.
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