Exhibition

Bassam Al-Sabah: I AM ERROR

21 Jul 2021 – 19 Sep 2021

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
12:00 – 18:00
Thursday
12:00 – 18:00
Friday
12:00 – 18:00
Saturday
12:00 – 18:00
Sunday
12:00 – 18:00

Save Event: Bassam Al-Sabah: I AM ERROR41

I've seen this4

People who have saved this event:

close

Gasworks

London, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • Vauxhall/Oval
Directions via Google Maps Directions via Citymapper
Event map

Gasworks presents the first solo exhibition in London by Belfast-based artist Bassam Al-Sabah.

About

Gasworks presents the first solo exhibition in London by Belfast-based artist Bassam Al-Sabah. His work embraces the shape-shifting potential of computer-animated worlds, creating fantasy dreamscapes in which personal mythology, historical trauma and queer possibility intersect.

In previous works, Al-Sabah reflected on geographical dislocation through reference to Japanese anime cartoons broadcast throughout the Middle East during his childhood. Packed with imagery of warfare, anime cartoons and video game culture take on a heightened political significance within Al-Sabah’s practice, whose family was exiled from Baghdad after the Iraq War. 

The exhibition at Gasworks explores the construction of masculinity in action-adventure video games. Presented in an ultra-immersive cinematic environment, Al-Sabah’s newly commissioned CGI films confront the armouring of the male body in gaming culture by queering its military ethos from within.

The centrepiece is a 28-minute-long animation projected on to a large curved screen. It features a collection of cinematic sequences from an imaginary game in which the hero’s body is constantly in flux, undergoing metamorphoses as a result of his encounter with other lifeforms, whose physical touch makes him vulnerable to change, threatening his identity and selfhood. 

Combining fantasy erotica and body horror, Al-Sabah’s films celebrate the hero’s growth and transformation in all its literalness, as his body sprouts and blends into its surroundings, among writhing flowers and tentacular creatures. The tactile, hyperrealistic quality of the footage contrasts with the immersive architecture of the film installation, which engulfs the viewer to induce a sense of disembodiment.  

The show is punctuated by digitally sculpted objects that explore the materiality of organic decay, extending the eerie atmosphere of Al-Sabah’s animations into the gallery space. 

*To book your free tickets, please visit our website. Booking will open at the beginning of July. 

--

Bassam Al-Sabah lives and works in Belfast and Dublin. He graduated from IADT Dún Laoghaire in 2016, and was awarded the RHA Graduate Studio Award (2016-2017) and the Temple Bar Gallery Residency Award (2018-2019). Recent exhibitions include RTÉ Illuminations (2020); Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (2019); The LAB, Dublin (2018); and Eight Gallery, Dublin (2017).

Al-Sabah is the fifth artist to take part in the Freelands Gasworks Partnership, a programme for emerging UK artists based outside of London. 

Gasworks commissions are supported by Catherine Petitgas and Gasworks Exhibitions Supporters

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Bassam Al Sabah

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.