Rehana Zaman | GIANTESS | Dusk #4

About

Rehana Zaman presents a new multi screen video work posing as a fragmented B movie where oil shale mines and ice-skating rinks are stirred by the libidinal figure of a giant amorphous woman. ‘Giantess’ imagines a future undone by unthinkable, abject and unliveable bodies.

Rehana Zaman is an artist based in London working with moving image and performance. Her work considers the interplay of multiple social dynamics that constitute subjects along particular socio-political formations. These narrative based artworks, often deadpan and neurotic, are generated through conversation and collaboration with others. 

Recent screenings and exhibitions include ICA, London, Contemporary Art Tasmania, The Irish Film Institute, Dublin, The Tetley, Leeds, Studio Voltaire, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Berwick Film and Media Festival, Projections Art Rotterdam, Konsthalle C, Stockholm and Baro, São Paolo.

www.lux.org.uk/content/rehana-zaman

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION SERIES

A- - -Z programmes the Dusk Exhibition Series from May to September - and invites Daniel Shanken to create a new video work specifically in relation to trans-gender, Science Fiction and Post-Human.

Dusk Exhibition Series presents artworks to be experienced from outside the gallery space fully visible at the dark hours & shown for the first time in London. Relating to the themes of the public talks that took place at the RCA School of Fine Art called the Visual Cultures Lecture Series, Rise Up & Envision* - (to develop a cultural and contextual awareness of global transformations.)

Dusk#1 was presented at the RCA Dyson Gallery in January 2016 with Karikpo Pipeline, a 5-channel video installation by Zina Saro-Wiwa curated by Zoe Whitley.

Dusk#2 exhibited Evan Ifekoya's newly commissioned video at the StudioRCA Riverlight in May 2016 - the video titled Okun Song is identification across mixed realities - Between the Two my Heart is Balance by Lubaina Himid, There must be an angel by Eutrythmics and the Yoruba myth of the Olokun - god/goddess from the sea.

In June 2016, Daniel Shanken presented Son of Chippy 221, part of Dusk#3. Narrated by vlogger, Danial Tijuana Gringo, unscripted from his bedroom in the USA or Mexico, Son of Chippy 221 delves into the mind of a security guard reluctantly guarding a gallery below an apartment complex. Surrounded by imagery shot virtually and on location in Aldershot, it features Banger Racing and island demolitions. 

*ABOUT THE VISUAL CULTURES LECTURE SERIES - Rise Up & Envision

During the previous academic year our Visual Cultures Lecture series has addressed the theme of contemporaneity as an ungraspable concept always to be defined. The series started with presentations from artists and expanded to include contributions from historians, theorists and cultural critics. 

This year, to understand the context in which art is made and received, we plan to extend the debate from contemporaneity to a cultural and contextual awareness of global transformations.

We aim to create a platform for knowledge exchange through this series of public talks - Each event will host two to three guests in conversation to debate on subjects that we felt need to be addressed not only within education but also within a broaden context. Observing societal changes, with instability and uncertainty of this year ahead, we will ask how we can transform existing practices, disciplines and structures in order to meet these challenges in a sustainable way. Themes to be addressed will include Destructive Heritage, Global Transformation, Transgender Politics, De-colonised Institutions, Sustainable Resources, Activism and the Commons, technology & its use, Post-human…

The big questions for us will be to do with how we continue to operate effectively and sustainably in a context of huge political and economic uncertainty; with diminishing resources, we can’t simply continue to build new structures, so how can we recycle our existing disciplines and institutions without becoming determined by their all too apparent shortcomings?

How can we deconstruct presupposed territories/ideas/models and create other ways of seeing the future?