Events
Online Discussion with Saoirse Amira Anis
Saoirse Amira Anis will discuss her recent work ‘Holding Barzakh’ (2022) online on Thursday 10 November at 7.30pm. ‘Holding Barzakh’ (2022) was commissioned by LUX Scotland, supported by Edinburgh Art Festival, and formed part of Anis’ presentation at Platform: 2022 at Edinburgh Art Festival. ‘Holding Barzakh’ is available to view online until Thursday 17 November here.
‘Holding Barzakh’ documents the processes of foraging, cooking and dyeing fabric using ingredients traditionally found in Moroccan and Scottish cuisines. Having grown up in a two-culture household, Saoirse Amira Anis is interested in the shared rituals of these two seemingly disparate cultures.
Barzakh is an Arabic word designating a place separating the living from what comes after. It may also refer to the meeting place of fresh water and saltwater in an estuary. The title of the film refers to a state of existing in a beautiful middle ground — this space between spaces.
In the film, through an overlaid incantation, the work of the hands become labours of love, the products of which are imbued with this love. In this way the film investigates the tangible and intangible creations of shared rituals which seek to create a community-based strategy for survival; an ode to love, in all its forms.
‘Holding Barzakh’ was displayed as part of a multi-sensory installation at Platform 2022 as part of Edinburgh Art Festival, this new version comes with a series of suggestions to emulate these conditions and ignite your senses in your own space.
Saoirse Amira Anis
Saoirse Amira Anis (b. Lanark, Scotland) is based in Dundee. In her work, Saoirse explores the relationships between materials, memories, and the essential movement that runs through everything. She is also the curator of Miss(ing) Information, recently at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, an exhibition that features the work of Tayo Adekunle, Nkem Okwechime, Tako Taal and Natasha Ruwona. Since graduating Saoirse has completed residencies at Cove Park, Argyll and Bute, Hospitalfield in Arbroath, and Collemacchia, with the Museum of Loss and Renewal. She was a committee member at GENERATORprojects 2018 – 2021. Recent projects include: Jupiter Rising, 2021; A Lesson in Vanity, David Dale Gallery and Lux Scotland, July 2021; We Can Still Dance, Jupiter Artland, as part of the Black Lives Matter Mural Trail, Edinburgh Art Festival (2020; GEN-TRS, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (2020), and Echo, in response Alberta Whittle’s How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth, DCA, Dundee (2019).
Image description: A close up of two hands, wet with the juice of an orange, squeeze orange pulp into a glass jar below which is full of bright orange juice.
Closed Captions
This event will have live captions
Audio Described
Audio Described and Captioned versions of the work are available to view.