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Artworks

Mohammad Alfaraj, Sophia, 2018
Mohammad Alfaraj, Sophia, 2018
Mohammad Alfaraj, Sophia, 2018

Mohammad Alfaraj Saudi, b. 1993

Sophia, 2018
Video installation
Duration: 9:56 min
Ed. 1/5 + 1AP

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  • Sophia
This digital installation sets up a configuration of screens into a 3-Dimensional box, onto which 3 distinct narratives are diffused. The work sets to blur the lines between factual footage...
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This digital installation sets up a configuration of screens into a 3-Dimensional box, onto which 3 distinct narratives are diffused. The work sets to blur the lines between factual footage and fiction in a bid to raise questions around our absorption of information through channels that we are exposed to on a daily basis. The use of visual material, audio, space, colour and light all contribute to the experiential dynamic of this body of work.The 3 films will be presented in a sort of factual gradient, from factually correct, to partly fictional and finally a cinematic montage of images interlaced with presumed narratives.The first segment, titled Sofia, sets the scene of a contemporary TV program around recent news regarding a robot called Sofia who was granted Saudi citizenship. This footage is then juxtaposed with real life footage of a stateless people.The second segment, titled The Turtle, looks back at 1980’s footage of a hundred-year-old turtle being released into open waters. The incredibly moving scene is later juxtaposed with the ruthless slaughter of an elderly turtle by Saudi men in a bit to eat it. The turtle moves across the screens, whimsically floating through space."What were your inspirations for the video installation showcased at the Surface Tension exhibition?" :I think what really drove the idea into becoming this work was mainly seeing the robot Sophia being awarded the Saudi citizenship on TV, in contrast to my experience in trying to make a film about a group of displaced undocumented people in southern SaudiArabia. The TV in opposite to film, robots in opposite to humans and then to animals and nature to complete the ecological circle. It was also my first attempt into balancing between the form and the content, make both influence each other in the work, three chapters unfold in a sculpture of screens that's built and designed on three planes. So, in general what draws me really is when the dots are connected, when the stitched fragments make sense and look like a mosaic of some sort: Sophia and humans and nature, TV and film, form and content.This body of work pivots on notions of perspective, both literal and metaphorical, where the fragmentation of the image echoes a wider statement about the diffusion and reliability of news and information, we have grown so reliant on.
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Exhibitions

2018 - "The Clocks are Striking Thirteen" group exhibition, ATHR Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2019 - Sharjah Biennale
2019 - Annual Fine Art Fair - Bahrain
2022 - Lyon Biennale, Guimet Museum, Paris
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