Niimi Exhibition at Blindside ARI, 10 – 27 August 2022.

Tegina Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed is a multichannel video, sound, and slide projection work which is part of a larger project using the artist’s first name ‘Mohamed’ as a starting point. The project explores the tension between reverence and the profane by creating a manifold portrait of Mohamed appropriated from Egyptian cinema. In this iteration, an archive of the name has been built based on specific criteria that involve the use of the name Mohamed, either as a fictional character, a symbolic representation in a religious film, or an actor’s real name displayed in the opening credits.

A collection of CRT TV’s present scenes extracted from Egyptian films whose content is determined by an actor or actress enunciating the name “Mohamed”. Contextualising dialogue is muted and an asynchronous chorus of “Mohamed’s” remains.

Accompanying the video installation is a sound work composed by Matthew Davis who micro-sampled the sound Mohamed from the same films and processed them with a set of analog filters.

The slides project an ‘archive of opening credits’ containing the word ‘Mohamed’ built from a large collection of Egyptian films. Grabbed from the screen whenever an actor named Mohamed is credited, second names and role descriptions are then erased from the still, leaving the single word Mohamed and the original film scene in the background. Rephotographed and transposed to slide, the images are put through a combination of digital, and sometimes analog processes that obscure the original film transforming their materiality, creating an ambiguous connection between the written word and image.

Mohammed Mohammed Mohammed, through an extensive process of copying, erasing and repetition combined with material transposition de-contextualises different references to the name Mohammed, highlighting the boundaries of representation.

Thanks to Raafat Ishak, Matthew Davis, Lisa Radford, Nicholas Burridge, Alaa Samir, Ayman Kaake, Maud Freeman, and Lauren Dunn.

Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed, multi-channel video, sound by Matthew Davis, CRT TVs, 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projectors, Arduino microcontroller, timber and metal structures.

Video documentation of ‘Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed’, multi-channel video, timber, and metal structures.

Video documentation of ‘In Search of Mohamed: archive of opening credits’, 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projectors, Arduino microcontroller, timber and metal structures.

Sound work composed by Matthew Davis who micro-sampled the sound Mohamed from the films and processed them with a set of analog filters.

Slide projection from the series ‘In Search of Mohamed: archive of opening credits’.

35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projectors, Arduino microcontroller, timber, and metal structures.

     

 

Installation shots at Blindside ARI, Melbourne. 

Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed, multi-channel video, sound by Matthew Davis, CRT TVs, 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projectors, Arduino microcontroller, timber and metal structures.