Exhibition
2015 Triennial: Surround Audience
02/25/15-05/24/15
Conversations · Exhibition-Related
Lawrence Abu Hamdan on Contra Diction: Speech Against Itself
Cover Image:
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Tape Echo, 2013–14. Light boxes, C-prints, Watkins Copicat tape echo machine, audio cassette player, audio cassette, and headphones, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Galeri Non, Istanbul
Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s talk, titled “Contra Diction: Speech Against Itself,” will address the ways in which our right to silence can be preserved in what the artist calls “today’s All-Hearing and All-Speaking society.” In his reappraisal of silence and its politics, Abu Hamdan will look into the linguistics of Taqiyya, an old form of Islamic jurisprudence practiced only by esoteric minorities that allows a believing individual to deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal acts when at risk of persecution or in a condition of statelessness. By looking into stories of alleged mass conversions of the Druze minority in northern Syria, Abu Hamdan indicates how such minor speech acts can help us re-appraise the precision of speaking, the multiple ways of remaining silent, and the inherently unfaithful nature of one’s voice.
Sponsors
Lead Support provided by the “Friends of the 2015 Generational Triennial”
Chair:
Hank Latner
Co-Chairs:
Shelley Fox Aarons, Lonti Ebers, Ken Kuchin, and Toby Devan Lewis
Friends of the Generational Triennial:
Andrea Rosen Gallery
Lisa and David Barse
Alexandra Bowes and Stephen Williamson
James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach
Lisa Fayne Cohen and James Cohen
Sandra and Leo DelZotto
Marisa and David Droga
The John David and Signy Eaton Foundation
Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg
Charlotte Feng Ford
Andrea Glimcher
Tina Kim and Jae Chung
Ahmet Kocabıyık
Mihail Lari and Scott Murray
Marsy Mittlemann
Catriona and Simon Mordant
Mario Palumbo and Stefan Gargiulo
Regen Projects
Lisa Roumell and Mark Rosenthal
Sprüth Magers
Jerome L. and Ellen Stern
Courtney Finch Taylor
Laurie and David Wolfert
“Surround Audience” is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.
Artist commissions are generously supported by the Neeson / Edlis Artist Commissions Fund.
Additional support is provided by Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, the International Leadership Council of the New Museum, and Carol and Arthur Goldberg. The accompanying publications were made possible, in part, by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and the J. McSweeney and G. Mills Publications Fund at the New Museum. Education and community programs are supported, in part, by the American Chai Trust.
Generous support for artist residencies is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Laurie Wolfert, and an anonymous donor.
Support for artist projects, travel, and research is provided by: Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Aeroméxico, Artis, Asian Cultural Council, Czech Center New York, Iaspis – the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual Artists, Institut Français, Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (SRE/AMEXCID), Office for Contemporary Art Norway: OCA, Ostrovsky Family Foundation, Royal Norwegian Consulate General of New York, SAHA Association, Lisa Schiff, and VIA Art.
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