Sophia Al-Maria
Limerent Object II
Video, 3 min, loop
FAENA FORUM, AMPHITHEATER
Monday 2nd 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Tuesday 3rd 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM
In the beginning there was the seed.
In this case The Last Supper begins with Sophia Al-Maria’s new commission for the Faena Forum Amphitheater that presents us with an original incantation before the feasting.
A part of her ongoing Limerent Objects series of videos imagin- ing the myths and rituals of the pre-and-post human, emerging and disappearing from collective consciousness. Embedded at the centre of the Faena Ampitheater, The Limerent Object II is viewable only from above at the edge of the screen. The piece must be approached over dark earth and the audience is requested to remove their shoes before entering the area. The Limerent Object II is reminiscent of a cenote, a birth canal, or a watery portal leading to another world. This single channel video and installation casts
Al-Maria’s collaborator Yumna Marwan into the center of this sanctuary-like space filled with pomegranate incense, as an abject Persephone/Kore type figure. Her body is trapped in the multi- faceted red light of the video, like a prehistoric insect entombed in amber. The story of this Queen of the underworld, a figure philosopher Giorgio Agamben called ‘the unspeakable girl’—occupied a central place in Eleusinian mystery cults’ secret rites to ensure food security and harmonious balance with nature. These ancient Greek rituals were performed in honor of Persephone and Demeter, which unlike the hypermasculine traits of many mystery cults and other secret societies, were a celebration of the chthonic towards a liberation from the fear of death.
Marwan floats to the surface of the image before evaporating again and again. She paces like a hungry prisoner in a ruby-jewelled cell evoking Persephone’s fasting in the underworld as she survived on only pomegranate seeds, the food of the dead, while her mother Demeter above
ground laid waste to the fields, made the ground barren, ceasing all harvest with her pain at having lost her daughter, until she ultimately returned to her.
Sophia Al-Maria’s retelling of the timeless myth is perhaps a redemptive love story between two women that ultimately reimagines our very own myth of mothering and creation, of famine and harvest. The work draws on ancient religion while making it vital to our understanding of our contemporary moment, a pre-apocalyptic anxiety, the feeling of the fall of empire, the rise or death of seas, the loss of the future and the very possibilities that might exist to hold each other, feed each other, nourish each other in this space and time and escape the trap of binaries, language.
This work continues Al-Maria’s interest in the relationship of myth-making to world-building/breaking as well as the fantasy of history as fact. In this and the previous Limerent Object—words approach utterance but emerge as a hum. The few audible words connote an oblique feeling of free fall. The repetitive meditation draws the viewer down towards an ecstatic trance state, akin to explosive fugues of mystics and mourners—where Marwan, glimmers in and out of the grenadine-hued cenote. This second Limerent Object is an altar, an unpinned grenade and meditative seed for the audience to carry with them.
Faena Forum, Amphitheater Monday 2nd 6:00PM – 11:00PM Tuesday 3rd 11:00AM – 10:00PM
Sophia Al-Maria will be creating a new commission for the Faena Forum Amphitheater, as part of her Limerent Objects series of videos imagining the myths and rituals of the pre-and-post human, emerging and disappearing from collective consciousness. This single-channel video and installation casts Al-Maria’s collaborator Yumna Marwan into the center of this sanctuary-like space filled with pomegranate incense, as an abject Persephone/Kore- type figure, trapped outside of time and space. This bloody and ravenous Queen of the underworld - a figure Agamben called ‘the unspeakable girl’— occupied a central place in Eleusinian mystery cults’ secret rites to ensure food security and harmonious balance with nature. This work continues Al-Maria's interest in the relationship of myth-making to world-building/breaking as well as the fantasy of history as fact. In this and the previous Limerent Object - glossolalic words approach utterance but are never spoken. The repetitive meditation draws the viewer down towards an ecstatic trance state, akin to explosive fugues of mystics and mourners— where Marwan, glimmers in and out of the grenadine-hued cenote. This second Limerent Object is an altar, an unpinned grenade and meditative seed for the audience to carry with them.
Bio
Sophia Al-Maria is an artist, writer and filmmaker. She studied comparative literature at the American University in Cairo, and aural and visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. For the past few years, she has been carrying out research around the concept of Gulf Futurism. Her work has been exhibited in various institutional shows around the world including Beast Type Song, Tate Britain, London, UK (2019); Sophia Al-Maria: BCE, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2019); 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience, New Museum, New York, NY, USA (2015); Do It, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (2013); The 9th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2012).
Sophia Al-Maria was born in 1983. She lives and works in London.