Sophia Al-Maria, Bull and Bear, 2023, Diptych c-type print on metallic paper, aluminium frame, 44 x 64 x 4 cm each
Sophia Al-Maria participates in Busan Biennale Seeing in the Dark at Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum.
17 August - 20 October 2024
Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea
Co-directors Vera May and Philippe Pirotte
At the Busan Biennale, Al-Maria presents Bull and Bear (2023), a preparation in photography and sound for a future video-work. The pictures capture the back of a man in a suit, walking through an urban landscape. The man is Richard Quest, a British journalist working for the American channel CNN who acquired quasi-mythological fame through his program Quest Means Business. Quest’s characteristic voice became associated with the fluctuations of the market, hence the title of Al-Maria’s work Bull and Bear referring to the rising (bull) and falling (bear) trends in the financial market.
Al-Maria asked Quest to read T.S. Elliot’s famous poem The Wasteland (1922) with his distinctive, recognisable voice. The poem, alluding to a certain canon of world literature but also to modern life vernaculars, draws an emotional landscape of collapse, brokenness, and loss in the aftermath of the First World War, suggesting an end of civilisation.
For more information visit the Busan Biennale website.
