Léuli Eshrāghi, re(cul)naissance, 2020. Installation view, Biennale of Sydney, 2020.
Photo: Jessica Maurer. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney. Courtesy of the artist THE WORKS LEULI ESHRAGHI
re(cul)naissance, 2020 HD video, 3 min 29 s Performers : Sereima Adimate, Tommy Misa, Kiliati Pahulu, Léuli Eshrāghi Garments : babylikestopony Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and generously assisted by: Artspace, babylikestopony, Spacecraft Studio, Neolite, Angela Tiatia, Jeremy Skellern, Julia Greenstreet, Edward Horne, Nina Ambjerg-Pedersen, and Hannah Rauwendaal. With the video re(cul)naissance, Léuli Eshrāghi stages a ceremony in which humans, animals, and nature come together to celebrate Indigenous kinships, along with the multiple genders, sexualities, and pleasures that they bear. We see four people touching and caressing each other, performing gestures imbued with gentleness and tenderness. In this work, playing on the idea of rebirth, Eshrāghi proposes new, sensitive avenues for addressing the future of fa’afafine, fa’atama, queer, trans, nonbinary, and other people, whose key roles in the intellectual and cultural life of a multiplicity of Indigenous kinship systems have been violently crushed. LEULI ESHRAGHI ‘upu o gafa o le vavau ‘o atumotu, 2020 Red orange glass, neon, aluminium frame, 200 x 140 cm |
MOMENTA x Diagonale
THE END IS WHERE WE START FROM Léuli Eshrāghi 09.8 – 10.23.2021 Curator: Stefanie Hessler, with the collaboration of Camille Georgeson-Usher, Maude Johnson and Himali Singh Soin Exhibition presented by MOMENTA Biennale de l’image and produced in partnership with Diagonale Léuli Eshrāghi proposes Indigiqueer defiance to destructive colonial relations with nature from ia position as a fa’afafine, nonbinary Sāmoan-Persian artist. The installation re(cul)naissance conjures Fe’e, the octopus god of war of Sāmoan mythology, through iridescent fabric and neon signs with French and Sāmoan words, and a video showing people tenderly touching one another. Eshrāghi honours human-animal kinship, pleasure, and connectivity to come after what ia refers to as “Gregorian shame-time.” This understanding of time is based in notions of linearity, property, and impurity introduced by missionaries and colonizers to Sāmoa and other places in the Pacific and beyond. In Eshrāghi’s work, destructive relations with land, water, and other entities are replaced by touch and affect beyond taboos imposed by Western cultures. LEULI ESHRAGHI re(cul)naissance, 2020 Installation, fluoropolymer glue, puff, rainbow and blue metallic foil screen print on fine cotton, 13,500 x 150 cm (8 lengths of 430 - 450 x 150 cm, 8 lengths of 240 x 150 cm) Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and generously assisted by: Artspace, babylikestopony, Spacecraft Studio, Neolite, Angela Tiatia, Jeremy Skellern, Julia Greenstreet, Edward Horne, Nina Ambjerg-Pedersen, and Hannah Rauwendaal. In the installation re(cul)naissance, Léuli Eshrāghi brings forth Fe’e, the octopus god of war of Sāmoan mythology. Here, Fe’e takes the form of a textile installation composed of wide bands of iridescent fabric upon which ancestral and contemporary motifs have been printed. By restoring respectful relationships with water, earth, light, bodies, and all living and nonliving beings (real or imaginary) that inhabit the world, Eshrāghi honours practices, identities, and knowledge oppressed by colonialism and its extractivist vision. LEULI ESHRAGHI les langues poussent jusqu’où notre Plaisir dépassera aujourd’hui, 2020 Pink peach glass, neon phrase, aluminum frame, 200 x 320 cm |
AROUND THE EXHIBITION
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CONVERSATION
10.9, 5:30 pm In this conversation interwoven with poetry readings, artist Léuli Eshrāghi and MOMENTA curators Stefanie Hessler and Himali Singh Soin honour human-animal kinship, pleasure, and connectivity to come after what Eshrāghi refers to as “Gregorian shame-time.” This understanding of time is based in notions of linearity, property, and impurity introduced by missionaries and colonizers to Sāmoa and other places in the Pacific and beyond. The conversation expands on Eshrāghi’s exhibition presented at Diagonale in the context of MOMENTA 2021, “The end is where we start from,” where destructive relations to land, water, and other entities are replaced by touch and affect beyond taboos imposed by Western cultures. Online event. Free of charge, booking required Book here + |
Léuli Eshrāghi, The end is where we start from, exhibition view presented at Diagonale as part of MOMENTA 2021. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro
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