Exhibition

Emii Alrai: The Courtship of Giants

11 Mar 2022 – 30 Apr 2022

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
12:00 – 17:00
Thursday
12:00 – 17:00
Friday
12:00 – 17:00
Saturday
12:00 – 17:00
Sunday
Closed

Free admission

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Eastside Projects

Birmingham, United Kingdom

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Travel Information

  • 10 min walk from Birmingham Moor St/Birmingham New St Stations
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Emii’s largest solo show to date involves a lure of corridors and dead ends punctuated by giant wounded sculptures held captive on metal armatures.

About

**This exhibition has been extended until Saturday 30 April**

Deep within Eastside Projects Emii Alrai is creating a world where medieval hunting traps meet museological dioramas. 

Emii’s largest solo show to date folds together an intricate web of references including the legend of Gilgamesh, the capture and coveting of giant artefacts from Iraq such as the Lamassu by the British Museum, the theatricality of medieval hunting arenas, the etymology and history of courting, ancient gravesite constructions, arrows and how wounds have been romanticised by the Pre-Raphaelites,  and their obsession with melancholia.

A large maze-like structure is taking over the main gallery, a lure of corridors and dead ends punctuated by giant wounded sculptures held captive on metal armatures. Traditional willow weaving techniques reimagined in cardboard and plaster walls create an immersive environment ready to entrap and ensnare. Steel arrows pierce walls and sculptures alike, quarrels and quivers anchoring limb-like objects in space, conjuring images of fallen knights, hunted animals, the coveted bodies hit by Cupid, and referring to the romanticised violence of the museum –  reminding us that the processes of longing, hunting, capture and collecting are underpinned by long bloody histories of conflict and colonisation.

Emii Alrai’s practice is informed by inherited nostalgia, geographical identity and post-colonial museum practices of collecting and displaying objects. Focusing on the ancient mythologies from the Middle East alongside personal oral histories of Iraq, the artist weaves together narratives by forging artefacts and visualising residues of cultural collision. Often working at a large scale she creates sculptural installations that recall museological displays and dioramas.

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Emii Alrai

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