Revealing the Unseen: Mariam Ghani Words: David Alm Photo: Chris Jones Even the most humanistic political artists can lose sight of the personal when dealing with the abstract. Mariam Ghani is the exception. Heady and compelling, the Brooklyn artist's film, installation and Web projects address timely issues like immigration, diaspora and the reconstruction of her father?s native Afghanistan (her mother is Lebanese). Her open-ended, Web-based work, How Do You See the Disappeared?, presents what she calls "warm data," the unquantifiable pieces of information that define a human being, on émigrés seeking political asylum in the U.S. Through questions like "Who was your first love?" and "What do you see when you close your eyes?" Ghani develops abstract yet intimate portraits that privilege subjectivity and experience over hard facts. Thus her subjects' humanity transcends the "cold data" that otherwise define them within legal and bureaucratic systems. At 26, Ghani is rising fast in the New York art world, surprisingly for someone who once planned on teaching comparative literature. After graduating from NYU, Ghani changed course to study video art and film at SVA, receiving her MFA in 2002. Since then she has shown in some of New York's preeminent galleries, film venues and museums; last year she was an artist- in-residence at Eyebeam, where she begins teaching this summer. Ghani's academic training gives her an intellectual breadth rare in young artists. "I still have a very literary approach," she notes, citing the influence of late theorist Edward Said -- particularly his notion of contrapuntal narratives. "I'm primarily interested in how history is narrated and the terms of that narration." For Ghani the work is urgent: "It's the burden of Sheherazade," she says, referring to the Arabian folk tale of a young woman who told her king one story a night for 1,001 nights to avoid execution. "It's about telling stories in order to stay alive." © RES Media Group | About Us | Privacy | Contact Archives 1982-1999 ABOUT WRMEA CONTACT US SUBSCRIBE DONATE Home > Shington-report.org > Archives > August_2005 > IN/VISIBLE Art Exhibition Inaugurates Arab ADVERTISE WITH US American National Museum WRMEA AD CAMPAIGN Washington Report, August 2005, pages 50-51 MIDDLE EAST BOOK CLUB JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Special Report CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS LINKS IN/VISIBLE Art Exhibition Inaugurates Arab KEEP TRACK OF AIPAC U.S. & LOCAL NEWS American National Museum By Maymanah Farhat SINCE ITS inauguration in early May, the Arab American National Museum has hosted events that aim to educate the community on the impact and contributions of Arab Americans Ads by Goooooogle throughout American history. Free Arabic Lessons The May 19 opening of the art Develop Listening, exhibition IN/VISIBLE and Reading, Writing & three-day symposium on Speaking Skills. “Exploring New Forms and Participate Now! Meanings: the Intersection of Arabic.OnlineRewardCenter.com Audience, Ideas and Art” exemplified the museum’s dedication to providing outlets Clever Interactive through which Arab Americans Spaces can convey their identity and Strategy, design & experiences to the greater engineering for community. engaging hands-on Points of Proof, 2005, by Mariam Ghani (©Miriam Ghani). exhibits! Currently on display until Oct. www.rotostudio.com 30, IN/VISIBLE is an inspiring showcase of art by first- and second-generation Arab Americans. The first of its kind, the exhibit features the works of Yasser Aggour, Rheim Alkadhi, Doris Bittar, Abdelali Dahrouch, Mariam Ghani, John Halaka, Nabila Hilmi, Emily Jacir, Mohammad O. Khalil, Amina Mansour, Sumayyah Samaha, Athir Shayota, Helen Zughaib and Afaf Zurayk. Together, their pieces successfully communicate the realities and concerns of Arab Americans, while defying media stereotypes that continue to suppress the Arab-American voice. The IN/VISIBLE artists employ a range of media—including film, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, poetry and sculpture—and provide individual reflections on such issues as family, love, immigration, globalization, war, political conflict and identity. The opening of IN/VISIBLE corresponded with the art symposium designed to initiate dialogue between Arab-American artists, scholars and the community. The art exhibit, panel discussions, art presentations and film screenings all were part of the May 19-21 event that inspired discussions concerning the effectiveness of art on the greater community and the exploration of identity and experience. The works included in the exhibit are diverse in appearance and media, yet all are thought- provoking. Each artist engages the viewer with journeys of identifying the past, while communicating one’s identity and looking to the future. IN/VISIBLE projects a universality that is communicated through each piece through an communicated through each piece through an examination of various aspects of the human Doris Bittar’s Why We Are Like Our Parents, condition. Mama & Me, Lebanon 1960 (©Doris Bittar 2004). Artist Mariam Ghani explores issues of identity in Points of Proof, 2005, a video, Web site and mixed media installation based on a database generated by a single question: “If someone questioned your right to call yourself an American, what is the one story, object, image or document you would offer as your proof?” The result is a fascinating array of responses by Arabs and Arab Americans in the Detroit area. Through Ghani’s piece, we are given a glance into the difficulties faced when one’s nationality is consistently questioned. Points of Proof offers an often-silenced community the opportunity to define itself during this critical point in history. In her painting, Prayer Rug for America, 2001, Helen Zughaib further explores such issues of nationality and identity through the depiction of a Muslim prayer rug which uses the influence of traditional Islamic mosaics and American flags to challenge the viewer’s perceptions of what it means to be Arab, American or Muslim. The synthesis of the two recognizable symbols of culture forces the viewer to explore his or her own thoughts on understanding and tolerance during these difficult post- 9/11 times. Upon closer assessment of the piece, the viewer is captivated by a riveting question that was also explored in Ghani’s Points of Proof—what does it mean to be Arab American? Both Ghani’s and Zughaib’s work are excellent examples of how Arab-American artists have been instrumental in negotiating the difficulties of living between two cultures. The works included in IN/VISIBLE challenge the so-called “borders” that lie between minority and immigrant communities and mainstream American society. Through their work, the artists of IN/VISIBLE affirm that fixed cultural borders no longer suffice to define many first- Helen Zughaib’s Prayer Rug for and second-generation Americans. America (©Helen Zughaib). Such fusion of cultures is combined with examinations of the artist and individual in the context of this imperative moment in history. Thus, IN/VISIBLE is an historical event not only for Arab-American artists, but for the greater community as well. The artists of IN/VISIBLE provide us with a better understanding of a community that has long been silenced. Through their works we are moved by the need for the continuous articulation of experiences and realities of a people that have remained invisible for far too long. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog, IN/VISIBLE: Contemporary Art by Arab Americans, edited by curator Salwa Mikdadi, available for purchase from the Museum gift shop. For further information on the exhibition contact the Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI 48126, (312) 582-AANM (2266). For more information on the artists who participated in IN/VISIBLE e-mail <[email protected]>. Maymanah Farhat is a California-based free-lance writer and researcher of visual arts. Home > Shington-report.org > Archives > August_2005 > IN/VISIBLE Art Exhibition Inaugurates Arab American National Museum Tell Me More About Membership October 2005 Piecing It Together David Alm is a freelance journalist, editor, and teacher. He has a master’s degree Storytelling in the Digital Age from the University of Chicago, where he By David Alm studied film history and theory. He has published widely on contemporary art, film, and design in magazines such as American Artist Watercolor, Artbyte, Shortly after Jean-Luc Godard Camerawork, RES, Silicon Alley Reporter, released Breathless in1960, an Time Out, SOMA, and The Utne Reader. exasperated journalist said to the This year he helped Hillman Curtis write young director: “Surely you think Creating Short Films for the Web, to be that a film should have a beginning, published in the fall by Peach Pit Press. middle, and end.” He has also taught film history and writing at the college level and assisted in making several short and documentary films. He “Yes,” Godard replied after a lives in Brooklyn, New York. moment, “but not necessarily in that order.” Those words not only launched the French New Wave but Mariam Ghani, a Brooklyn-based new media have since inspired thousands of artist. (photo courtesy of Ghani) young directors to reject traditional plot devices. Now, for better or for worse, Godard’s enigmatic response has become even further complicated by the increasingly pervasive use of digital technology—which may be the demise of storytelling as we know it. With interactive websites and DVDs, TiVo, and elaborate computer games, the art of patiently allowing a tale to unfold is starting to seem antiquated. According to Marcia Zellers, director of the Digital Content Lab at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, whether or not these new technologies will fundamentally change our concept of “story” is “the toughest nut to crack. We haven’t really figured that out yet.” The Digital Content Lab was established in the late 1990s to prepare for the so- called “digital revolution” and to insure that new technologies advanced—rather than hindered—the art of storytelling.