The Jameel Prize launched in 2009 with a key aim: to recognise the influence of Islamic tradition on contemporary culture. Since then, it has done exactly that, celebrating contemporary practitioners with a bi-annual exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. For the seventh edition, Alia Farid, Jawa El Khash, Khandakar Ohida, Marrim Akashi Sani, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Zahra Malkani, and a joint submission by Hesam Rahmanian, Ramin Haerizadeh and Rokni Haerizadeh have been shortlisted from the 300 entries. Themes of water, ecology and industrialisation are at the heart of this year’s presentation.
Zahra Malkani, for example, shares the audio archive she constructed with communities living along the Indus River and on the coast of the Indian Ocean. She explores how spiritual practices, in the form of music, prayer, chant and anthem, are rooted in local activism. They are a form of resistance against “ecological violence” – sacred islands being purchased by corporations; floods caused by commercial developments – throughout Pakistan. Another example is Jawa El Khash, who uses virtual reality and 3D simulation software to bring the violence of Syria’s ongoing civil war, which started in 2011, to light. The focus of The Upper Side of the Sky is on the destruction of historic architecture and what that means for cultural memory.
The Iranian trio Hesam Rahmanian, Ramin Haerizadeh and Rokni Haerizadeh blends historical footage with animation in If I Had Two Paths, I Would Choose the Third, commenting on iconoclasm and the symbolism of monuments. It is of the utmost importance that the Jameel Prize keeps centring the voices of Middle Eastern and South Asian artists, so that they, and their collaborators, can be heard worldwide.
V&A Museum, London | Until 16 March
Words: Frances Johnson
Image Credits:
1 & 3. Alia Farid, Chibayish, 2022, video, courtesy of the artist.
2. Zahra Malkani, Mela Shaikh Dhaman Shah, Manchar, 2022, fieldwork image, courtesy of the artist.
