Anna Boghiguian interview | Artes Mundi 8, Cardiff | 25 October 2018
The artists shortlisted for Artes Mundi 8 aim to stir our consciences on everything from abuse of the Earth’s resources to the creep of surveillance and the steel industry’s impact.
On entering the exhibition on the museum’s first floor, the first piece we encounter is an installation by Anna Boghiguian (b1946, Cairo) exploring the steel industry and its impact on human civilisation. A Meteor Fell from the Sky (2018) unfolds like a scattered, collaged storybook, with intensely figured drawings, slices of shimmering sheet steel, Boghiguian’s signature paper cut-outs (hard-hatted steel workers), some perching precariously on industrial structures, and mini-meteors created from mesh, concrete and paint, all set against a vibrant background wall colouring of intense pink, yellow and blue; these are the same colours that apparently burn so brightly against the darkness and clamour of a steel foundry.
The Egyptian-born Boghuiguian is said to live a nomadic life and, for this piece – with the encouragement of Artes Mundi founder and curator Karen MacKinnon - she travelled to India and also to Port Talbot in Wales, to draw out stories of the associated steel magnates and their workers. On one wall, she has handwritten one of several subtexts, describing how: “The industrial revolution … has transformed itself to digital revolution and virtual reality (new ways to interact, to think, to be). The mind has become a machine that responds to the input downloaded by the public. The public opinion becomes the police force that decides the moral/ethical values of our being. Treating people as criminals.”
She spoke with Studio International about her travels and research for this piece, the founding of India’s first steel business, Tata Steel - which, by an interesting twist of fate, now also owns the steel industry of Port Talbot - and how this material is currently being manipulated by assorted superpowers to influence global economies and politics.
The Artes Mundi exhibition runs until 24 February 2019 at the National Museum Cardiff.
Interview by VERONICA SIMPSON
Filmed by MARTIN KENNEDY
-
57:01
Man in America
10 hours agoWhy Are They Building SECRET DETENTION CAMPS in All 50 States? w/ J.J. Carrell
45.1K179 -
8:38
Robby Starbuck
5 days agoTractor Supply Ends Woke Policies in Response to Our Boycott!!
48.3K51 -
2:26:45
Laura Loomer
9 hours agoEP56: Democrats in Fetal Position as Trump Keeps Stacking W's
42.7K72 -
1:31:24
The Anthony Rogers Show
17 hours agoEpisode 225 - JT Barnett (Producer of Tiger King)
43.7K -
31:30
Degenerate Plays
1 day agoThe True American Sniper Is At Half-Mast - Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered : Part 10
44.3K1 -
2:24:27
WeAreChange
8 hours agoTrump Has A Clear Path To Victory But It's A TRAP...
58K42 -
2:02:43
Kim Iversen
10 hours agoAzov Battalion Enacted a Silent Coup in Ukraine | Jack Posobiec: The Secret History Of Communist Revolutions
67K156 -
1:43:19
The Nima Yamini Show
8 hours agoMilo Yiannopoulos X Nima Yamini
44K46 -
2:11:25
Robert Gouveia
13 hours agoJack Smith in DANGER; Bragg's BIG Sentencing PROBLEM; Classified Docs DISMISSAL Fight
73.9K83 -
59:41
The StoneZONE with Roger Stone
16 hours agoKash Patel Joins Roger Stone To Talk About The Best Week In Donald Trump's Life | The StoneZONE
50.4K36