This colorful & oversized curtain partly covers museum
Joe Namy’s – Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017, Site-specific installation, curtain and stereo sound, Dimensions variable, Façade of the Sharjah Art Museum, Arts Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
For his Sharjah Biennial 13 project, artist and composer Joe Namy’s has researched the influence of opera on music in the Arab world. Starting in Egypt with the founding of the Khedivial Opera House in 1869, he has found traces of the art form in Lebanon, Palestine, Kuwait, and more recently, the United Arab Emirates.
Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017 punctuates Sharjah Art Museum’s façade with a vibrant patchwork of fabrics that evoke garments used for celebration, mourning and everyday wear. These fabrics have been purchased from shops around Sharjah Art Foundation and sewn together by local tailors.
The dramatic play of colour and pattern sets the stage for an audio track, located in Bait Al Serkal, comprised of short stories, poems and essays on the subject of opera that are read by five writers and poets. In a departure from the spectacle-driven pageantry that is typical of operatic productions, Namy’s visual and sonic composition inspires a contemplative sense of occasion that resonates with its surroundings.
Joe Namy’s – Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017, Site-specific installation, curtain and stereo sound, Dimensions variable, Façade of the Sharjah Art Museum, Arts Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Joe Namy’s – Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017, Site-specific installation, curtain and stereo sound, Dimensions variable, Façade of the Sharjah Art Museum, Arts Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Joe Namy’s – Detail of Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017, Site-specific installation, curtain and stereo sound, Dimensions variable, Façade of the Sharjah Art Museum, Arts Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Joe Namy’s – Detail of Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017, Site-specific installation, curtain and stereo sound, Dimensions variable, Façade of the Sharjah Art Museum, Arts Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Joe Namy’s – Detail of Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love, 2017, Site-specific installation, curtain and stereo sound, Dimensions variable, Façade of the Sharjah Art Museum, Arts Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Ai Weiwei gives world his middle finger
Ai Weiwei – Study of Perspective, Tiananmen, 1995-2010, C-Print, 32,5×43,5cm
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist whose activism comes out in his artwork. He has been vocal and openly critical of the Chinese government’s stance on democracy and human rights. His work has captured global attention and served to bring attention to social injustices, human rights violations, and systemic violence.
