Past Performance and Installation
Omar Mismar, Muted
Presented on FRIDAY MAY 30th, 2014
Aniconism in Islam, as well as veiling and censorship, all belong to the same constellation that abstains from, perhaps disrupts, representation. In its reconfiguring of a mihrab, Reverberations of Stone faithfully evokes that tradition while at the same time becoming an image itself, an icon, and taken to the extreme, a “blasphemy.” Blasphemies are done without, censored and muted. My response to the work then becomes covering it up in a meticulous way that only brings attention to the act of creating it, tile by tile. In disrupting and hiding the existing representation, a new one emerges that only reinforces it.
Omar Mismar
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Omar holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut and currently pursuing an MFA in Social Practice and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts on a Fulbright scholarship. His interdisciplinary art practice is fueled by the idea of the everyday. Capitalizing on his temporary status as an artist without “a” job, he drifts in the city, clinging onto different frameworks and situations, occupying different roles, and forming temporary alliances— to space, to people, and to the subject matter at hand. Contingency, desire, connection, and romance complicate his recent body of work.
Reverberations in Stone was presented in conjunction with Thresholds of Faith exhibition, and in collaboration with Taraneh Hemami’s installation Reverberations of Stone.