One of the three exhibitions of SB14

Ours is an age of constant speed; we barely have a moment to breathe. Time is the irreversible, indefinite and continued process of existing in the world. Yet technological, social and political change has altered the means by which we relate to images, objects and the concept of history itself. Spatial and temporal orders have shifted with the advent of a reality that moves like mercury in and out of our hands, flowing into an abyss, a space of chaos—but also toward a new portal, a space of possibility. Reality and history have been augmented by the realm of the virtual. This process encourages us to look back with a critical eye at the history of material cultures as we think we know them. With all this in mind, how do we slow down and ‘experience’ the experience? How do we make ‘new time’?

This exhibition is a provocation. It seeks to show how material culture can be reimagined through the lenses of artists whose political agency, activism and astute observations encourage us to extend the limits of our beliefs. It considers how economies have formed around technological culture, how narrative is created and deconstructed, and how these forces of change enable a reconstitution, or indeed a restitution, of a history lost or even unknown. Drifting in and out of hegemonies and entrenched structures of power, here the sensorial and the bodily intertwine, becoming archaeological sediments in the landscape of Sharjah and imploring viewers to consider their complicity in a world that is forever slipping away.

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27 participants

* new commissions

Lawrence Abu Hamdan *
Cory Arcangel *
Marwa Arsanios *
Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck *
Semiha Berksoy
Candice Breitz *
Huguette Caland
Ian Cheng *
Shezad Dawood *
Stan Douglas *
Lubaina Himid
Alfredo Jaar *
Ann Veronica Janssens *
Barbara Kasten
Astrid Klein
Marwan
Otobong Nkanga with Emeka Ogboh *
Bruno Pacheco *
Heather Phillipson *
Jon Rafman *
Michael Rakowitz
Pamela Rosenkranz *
Hrair Sarkissian *
Anwar Jelal Shemza
Kemang Wa Lehulere *
Munem Wasif *
Akram Zaatari *

Artists and artworks in this exhibition

Access to the venues in the general visual tour, including information and texts from the SB14 Guidebook

Gallery 6

Akram Zaatari

Bait Al Aboudi

Otobong Nkanga & Emeka Ogboh

Bait Hussein Makrani

Heather Phillipson

Bait Habib Al Yousef

Hrair Sarkissian

Gallery 5

Alfredo Jaar, Ann Veronica Janssens, Candice Breitz

Sharjah Art Museum, right

Anwar Jalal Shemza, Lubaina Himid, Semiha Berksoy, Marwan, Bruno Pacheco, Huguette Caland, Shezad Dawood

Bait Al Serkal

Ian Cheng, Astrid Klein, Pamela Rosenkranz, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Michael Rakowitz, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Stan Douglas, Barbara Kasten, Marwa Arsanios, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Munem Wasif, Jon Rafman