There’s a point about halfway through After SFX (2018) where Lawrence Abu Hamdan pauses his performance—he’s just relayed the story of Lebanese President Émile Lahoud’s security tackling a cameraman after mistaking the sound of a tripod for the sound of a pistol—and a low, screeching hum, like a buzzing bee or a car burning out in the distance, fills the auditorium.
Until 9 May, Maureen Paley, 60 Three Colts Lane, E2 6CQ
The Beirut-based artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan is known for his cutting-edge investigatory work that interrogates how sound and oral histories can be used for social justice. For his second solo show at Maureen Paley, he extends the reach of his innovative practice to the concept of reincarnation. In the film
Once Removed (2019), first shown at the 2019 Sharjah Biennial, Abu Hamdan interviews the 31-year-old historian Bassel Abi Chahine about the extensive archive he has amassed around a lesser known part of the Lebanese civil war, a history that is suppressed by the Lebanese state. Curiously, Abi Chahine explains that he is reincarnated from a solider that died aged 16 in this war, and so has witnessed a life and its concomitant suffering that he hasn t physically experienced.
What Shows to Look Forward to in the UK this Spring frieze.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from frieze.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan presents four works from two series at Vienna s Secession
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Once Removed, 2019, exhibition view Secession 2020, photo: Iris Ranzinger.
VIENNA
.- In both his art and his audio investigations, Lawrence Abu Hamdan grapples with sound, speech, memory, and the quest for truth in the context of todays legal and humanitarian crises. A central concern that is woven through many of his works, including sound and video installations, objects, and research-based documentaries, is his engagement with questions around the relevance and critique of acoustic clues and the reports of earwitnesses as part of the gathering of evidence in legal proceedings. In his exhibition at the Secession, the artist takes these concerns a step further. He presents altogether four works from two series that probe questions related to the witness testimony. The display takes a stand for other forms of witnessing that break the juridical framework for eye- and earwitnesses�