PHOEBE BOSWELL: THE WORDS I DO NOT HAVE YET, 2017
Selected by: Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
Phoebe Boswell’s (b. 1982) art addresses the rootlessness of humanity, taking its starting point in her own personal experience as a member of a diaspora. She combines draftswomanship and digital technology in her art and recurring themes are segregation, racism and sexism. In The Words I Do Not Have Yet, Boswell creates a portrait of political activist Mary Nyanjiru, who led a group of women to storm a police station in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1922.
MARKO TIRNANIĆ: AVERSION TO ACTIVITY/EIGHT OF MARCH, 2019
Selected by: Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Serbia
Marko Tirnanić (b. 1985) primarily works with video and public installations. He is interested in power relations, for example those between the individual and the state, those dominated and those ruling. In his work Aversion to Activity/Eight of March, we follow a group of women who find themselves at a party devoid of men. The women are able to drink and experience a sense of freedom, without the presence of any oppressive control mechanisms in place. Even in that isolated space, patriarchal structures still appear to have an impact on them. With his film, Marko Tirnanić sets out to highlight the importance of fighting against habitual gender roles.
ATEFA HESARI: SAFED SAR, 2019
Selected by: Centre for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan
Atefa Hesari’s art focuses on the situations faced by women, and her work Safed Sar is a tribute to female resistance. The film is set in a location with a special significance to the Hazara people – the Chechel Dokhtaraan Mountains. During the late 1800s, a group of women sought refuge here to escape Amir Abdur Rahman Khan’s ethnic massacre. Unfortunately, the women were intercepted by the Amir’s troops and chose to take their own lives by jumping off the top of the mountain. The mountain, Chechel Dokhtaraan – which means ‘forty girls’ – was given this name after that event. Hesari’s film is set in this decisive location, and she cast girls from the local area for the film.
Photo: Phoebe Boswell, The Words I Do Not Have Yet, 2017. Still from film.
