Bait Al Serkal
Part 5 of the photo tour of Sharjah Biennial 12, 5 March - 5 June 2015. Curator: Eungie Joo; Associate Curator: Ryan Inouye. 51 artists and groups.
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Venue: Bait Al Serkal
a beckoning: We are not who we think we are. 2014–15
Latex, ink and acrylic on fabric and canvas, and video
7.9 x 24.4 m
a beckoning: We are not who we think we are is a large-scale installation presented in dialogue with a video recorded by the artist in Sharjah in summer 2014. Wearing a priest’s cassock, cowboy boots, hunting garments and an Ultraman mask, the protagonist cannot be placed or defined. As his gesticulations and stomping accelerate to address the viewer directly, he shifts between hero, menace, entertainer and ghost.
Presented in Bait Al Serkal, the work reflects McMillian’s interest in systems and structures that maintain social and political inequalities. His environmental sculpture surrounds the public in an expansive landscape painting that recalls open frontiers and the spirit of freedom promised by the American West while simultaneously suggesting how this sublime yet culturally charged imagery validates an ongoing history of European land grabs from indigenous peoples. Installed in a narrow
corridor, the lively painting operates like a conduit through time and space, its disorienting channels of poured colour and vigorous marks pulling one towards an unknowable outcome.
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
© Text: SB12 Guidebook
Part 5 of the photo tour of Sharjah Biennial 12, 5 March - 5 June 2015. Curator: Eungie Joo; Associate Curator: Ryan Inouye. 51 artists and groups.