This feature is part of our week-long coverage of Frieze London art fair 2014, which runs from October 15-18 at Regent's Park and contains art from over 160 of the world's most exciting contemporary art galleries.
When we heard that artist Sophia Al-Maria would be giving tours pointing out potential conspiracies in art-viewing at this year's Frieze London, it seemed too good to be true. In a way similar to Shanzhai Biennial's "branding" of the art fair, by creating Chanel-inspired bags and selling a £32,000,000 house, Sophia used the opportunity of her Frieze Project commission to do an expansive critique on the system of art consumption itself.
Sophia Al-Maria has a long list of accomplishments as an artist, writer, and filmmaker. Her memoir The Girl Who Fell To Earth came out in 2012, establishing her as an authority on the topic of Gulf Futurism, a term she has helped to coin and define. She's exhibited her work globally, from the Gwangju Biennale to Art Dubai, and her newest project in London, the city she currently calls home, is an important comment on the system she's a part of in varying ways.
We caught up with Sophia after Frieze to get her thoughts on the project in retrospect.
When Frieze London approached you for this project, and you came up with this concept, were you concerned that they might not allow such a direct critique about art fairs and potential art world conspiracies?
I would have been surprised by any censorious action. I had hired a man who had been kicked out of Frieze three times before to be the star of the video (that ended up on the cutting room floor), and they were very supportive all the way through. Then there was a scuffle when my boyfriend posted behind-the-scenes pictures of the construction of the fair on Twitter. Frieze is very much about the glamour and the glitz and the facade, as you can imagine. They made him take them down. Then I put those pictures in the tour. Preened final products are never as interesting as developmental stages.
Now that you've shown your Frieze Project, how do you feel it went? Were there any ideal reactions?
I liked that someone said its audience was bankers and five year olds. The minions rolling She Who Watches around have been in frequent contact. I am pleased because they are pleased.
Do you believe that there is a conspiracy against people who look at art?
If you need "an education" just to look at something, or a specialist vocabulary to speak about it, or money to gain access to it…something is rotten.
How did you initially begin working with Fatima Al Qadiri? I’m still mesmerized by the How Can I Resist U short film.
Fatima and Khalid Al Gharaballi were doing a sort of fotonovela project for Bidoun Magazine, and they needed a writer. That collaboration meant immediate connection. Bidoun was our matchmaker babushka basically. Then I had shot a surplus of creepy footage inside the Doha Sheraton and was playing around with it to one of Fatima's earlier tracks "Warn U." We both loved the effect so she released it as a video. Then we did "How Can I Resist U," and became close and the rest is histoire.
I listened to your Bridge Commission Audio Walk for Serpentine Gallery, and I heard the word “Babylondon.” What is that referring to? Is that a place with a "radiant secret at its center"?
I'm not sure who coined the phrase Babylondon. I think I read it in Salman Rushdie's words at some point. It's a good pun. Like Babylon, that even more ancient city—it represents some kind of united humanity: a dream, a destination, a Norther—but the tower for me is invisible. It's the shooting gap between have and have-nots, and eventually it has got to crumble.
That being said, why do you prefer to be based in London?
It is equidistant (as-the-plane-flies) between my two families.
How do you feel your work has been affected by the Internet?
The Internet has always been here for me, for the period of time in which I've been working at least. I remember the time before. But that is tied up with the Vaseline-lensed summer memories of a childhood reading and drawing and climbing trees. It can be crippling at the fragile times in the life of a project or a person. Aren't we all negotiating our relationship with it still?
In the global scope of futurism, do you feel the gulf often gets overlooked?
Not so much. Code 46 had Dubai mixed with Jaipur mixed with London mixed with Hong Kong, and that was 2003's vision of a nearing future where the world is a blurred smear. It is there. I think indigenous futures are overlooked however. Check L. Catherine (@MixdBludMessags) for how to de-colonize the future.
Are you working on any books now?
Yes, but it's tip top secret ;)
