Goonj: Echoing Mantis & Duurbeen: Moving Images on 29th March 2018 at Mantiq of the Mantis A day of surreal sounds, time travel and traversing the real to the irreal! Goonj: Echoing Mantis launched its first event on 29th March 2018 at Mantiq of the Mantis with Mehreen Murtaza's live installation '...how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees' and Duurbeen: Moving Images screened a video by
'what do the trees tell us?' Mantiq of the Mantis introduces an on going experience of encountering sound through multiple dimensions that reframe our everyday soundscape. Here, we escape the habitual notion of time and space, gradually re-discovering the breathing of sound that seems so vast, almost infinite and glacial. We consider the poetics of aurality through a combination of the sonic effects of anamnesis and decontextualization.A special thank you to everyone who helped MotM with this event!
Komal Ghazali
Ammar Ali Siddiqui for the documentation,
for sharing her beautiful video,
and
for their spontaneous performances with the singing plants and
and
for their wonderful presence.‘What do the trees tell us?’(duration: 17 mins) by Hira NabiThe video will be screened twice on Thursday 26th March: 4.30pm and 6.30 pm.Presented as a video diptych, it moves into the preserved gardens and the ruins of what were once gardens. The video’s narrative contemplates the significance of empire and colonialism, and the path that Lahore has embarked upon towards modernity.This work has previously been shown at Twelve Gates Arts Gallery in Philadelphia, USA.Hira Nabi’s visual work ‘All That Perishes on the Edge of Land’ was on display at Alhamra Arts Council, Mall till the 31st of March as part of the Lahore Biennale.Hira Nabi is an artist, filmmaker and researcher. Her artistic and research-based practice spans film, video, audio, and text. She holds a BA in video and cultural studies from Hampshire College, and an MA in media and cinema studies from The New School. Her work looks at repositories of memory in urban landscapes, contested or imagined histories, labor, and a keen observation of the built and natural environment.'...how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees' by Mehreen Murtaza is a live sonic installation curated by Sabeen Jamil
Set up in Baagh-e-Jinnah (Lawrence Garden), Lahore as part of Lahore Biennale till 31st March on a hill top where a Banyan / Bargad / Bori Tree has been living, listening and holding memories for almost over 60 years. The tree has been given a voice through human technology which converts electro-magnetic signals to sound. The Bargad sings to us as we move, interact and connect with it. What can we learn by listening to our silent companions?Mehreen Murtaza works across a range of media to explore the intersecting worlds of technology, nature, science and spirituality. Mehreen is an artist based in Lahore, Pakistan. She has exhibited her works internationally and received many grants, awards and scholarships to execute her artwork. She is also the co-founder of Mantiq of the Mantis, an experimental publishing house and creative space in Lahore.
Ice-walk by @sanarukshi at @bnu_svad_official @bnulahore Poetics of performance #ice #heat #sensate #temporal #shoestofit #barefeet #earth #kisstheground #heatwave #lahore #bnu #teaching (at Beaconhouse National University) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQe8UnBnO1N/?utm_medium=tumblr
Meditations on Time @bnu_svad_official (at Beaconhouse National University) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMeby__HwJg/?igshid=127hlxfv5xu3b
A supra sensible realm. Poetics of Performance: in praise of vulnerability. @bnu_svad_official . #performanceart #bnu #love #unity #synchronicity #poise #vulnerabilityisstrength #mirroring #reflection #meditation #repetition #gesture #vibratilemovement (at Beaconhouse National University) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMeZjXvnIxk/?igshid=srima0wvlq89
An in-situ sonic installation was set up in Baagh-e-Jinnah (Lawrence Garden), Lahore, March 2018 on a hill top where a Banyan / Bargad / Bodhi Tree has been living, listening and holding memories for almost over 60 years. The tree has been given a voice through human technology which converts electro-magnetic signals to sound. The Bargad sings to us as we move, interact and connect with it. What can we learn by listening to our silent companions?The recordings in this compilation are from a live interaction of the public with the Bargad Tree taken on 21st March and 24th March 2018. (Maham S.) recorded a session of her singing with the plants. As Maham sang, the plants chimed in response creating a beautiful concerto.
Source: SoundCloud / Maham S.
As the vevers or sacred symbols are drawn upon the floor, the ceremony is initiated. The ritual dances begin, climaxing into possession. As a loa – or god takes over or “mounts” one of Deren’s subjects, the motion of the body takes on a different rhythm and shape. The body and movements appear animated as if with an otherworldly force or power. Deren’s camera records soul, mystery, and magic. It is part of the realm of Myth, which Deren defined as “the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter“.
On becoming excerpt from “In The Mirror of Maya Deren” 2001 by Martina Kudlacek
#dying dance#dance of death#dance mania#dance plague#trance#hypnotize#hanna gardel#performance#bargad#banyan tree#tree of life#mystery rp#communication#biofeedback#silence#solitude#movement#mehreen murtaza#how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees#uproot#root#grace#gratitude#sound#sonic#live#art#artist#depth psychology#jung
To listen to recordings of the Bargad, click here The recordings in this compilation are from a live interaction of the public with the Bargad Tree taken on 21st March and 24th March 2018.
We witnessed the Bargad’s (Banyan tree’s) transformative power as we shared secrets, stories and songs.
Every tree is identical in DNA and connected to a single root system. As an organism, nature is a slowly moving creature capable of expanding our concepts of the natural, from vast open landscapes to the covert enormity of this individual living entity that is partly obscured underground. What we, as humans, perceive as being a forest, is in fact, a single organism. Roots outstretched from beneath the ground towards the skies, looking like an alien creature from another planet with its elephant skin bark, the Bargad has resiliently endured the history of our own species. We murmured mysteries incantations and transformed precisely through the Bargad’s capacity to withstand weathered conditions. We recognize in our exchanges with the Bargad a meeting with the numinous, that which is beyond all description. Silence is our response to the presence of the divine. Silence always cloaks those moments when words are neither adequate nor necessary.
“…how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees” at Baagh-e-Jinnah curated by @sabeenjam as part of @lahorebiennalefoundation #LB01 2018
Photographs courtesy the artist, Mehreen Murtaza, Sabeen Jamil, Komal Ghazaali, Ammar Siddiqui and Lahore Biennale Foundation 2018.
#bargad#banyan tree#tree#singing tree#roots#ancient#history#memory#time#biomusic#biofeedback#connectedness#interconnected#network#communication#telepathic telephonation#meditate#occult#mystery#how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees#mehreen murtaza#lahore#lawrence gardens#lahore biennale#2018#garden#live#installation#art#artist
"...how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees" at Baagh-e-Jinnah curated by @sabeenjam as part of @lahorebiennalefoundation #LB01
An in-situ sonic installation was set up in Baagh-e-Jinnah (Lawrence Garden), Lahore, March 2018 on a hill top where a Banyan / Bargad / Bodhi Tree has been living, listening and holding memories for almost over 60 years. The tree has been given a voice through human technology which converts electro-magnetic signals to sound. The Bargad sings to us as we move, interact and connect with it. What can we learn by listening to our silent companions?
Jamming with the plants at Mantiq of the Mantis ! (click here for video) Sabeen Jamil plays a semi-modular synthesizer, Sahar Ahmed playing a customized Ukranian Hangdrum as the plants respond to live music and human interaction
A post shared by Mehreen Murtaza (@mehreen.murtaza) on Mar 17, 2018 at 4:47am PDT
The perfect tree finds us at Baagh-e-Jinnah (Lawrence Gardens, Lahore) in preparation for an outdoor installation
“…how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees”
2017-18 Manchester Art Gallery
To communicate in silence.
Giorgio Agamben, Language & Death: The Place of Negativity translated by Karen E. Pinkus and Michael Hardt
#manchesterartgallery#manchester#paddy steer#mehreen murtaza#how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees#biomusic#biofeedback#speakingtoplants#thesecretlifeofplants#plantfood#singingplants#plantbased#arduino#plankton#synthesizer#synthwave#ants!#blofeld#waldorf#music#sound#communication#live#audio#sonic#installation#performance#poetry#green#garden
“...how will you conduct yourself in the company of trees” 2017-18 Manchester Art Gallery
A big shout out to my partner Sabeen Jamil for conceptualizing the transformation of Manchester Art Gallery’s gallery into an indoor garden and the Owl Project for introducing me to the crazycrazy world of synths (Ants! Plankton Series, Blofeld by Waldorf were used for this installation) and Clare Gannaway for her curatorial support.
Mehreen Murtaza explores the intersecting worlds of technology and nature, science and religion. She has worked in video, text, animation, sound and installation, creating scenarios in which confounding narratives blur the line between fact and fiction. Mehreen was joined by, Paddy Steer (808 State, Toolshed, Homelife) for this improvised performance on Sunday 1 October, 11–11.45am at Manchester Art Gallery.
New North and South
Mehreen's performance was part of the New North and South, a three-year programme of co-commissions, exhibitions and intellectual exchange across a network of 11 arts organisations from the North of England and South Asia. The network, supported by public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England's Ambition for Excellence programme, will bring prominence to the work of leading Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and UK artists. It will include new artistic commissions, exhibitions and performances in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool and in Colombo, Dhaka, Lahore, Karachi and Kochi.
New North and South partners are: Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum, Liverpool Biennial, The Tetley in Leeds, Colombo Biennale (Sri Lanka), Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Karachi and Lahore Biennales (Pakistan), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India) and the British Council.
Preparing the indoor garden as “...how will you conduct yourself in the company” a live sonic installation was selected to be presented at Manchester Art Gallery 2017-18 as part of the New North and South, a three-year programme of co-commissions, exhibitions and intellectual exchange across a network of 11 arts organisations from the North of England and South Asia.
Mehreen Murtaza explores the intersecting worlds of technology and nature, science and religion. She has worked in video, text, animation, sound and installation, creating scenarios in which confounding narratives blur the line between fact and fiction. Mehreen was joined by, Paddy Steer (808 State, Toolshed, Homelife) for this improvised performance on Sunday 1 October, 11–11.45am at Manchester Art Gallery.