“The You in Us” by Ourahmane at Chisenhale Gallery London
26 January – 25 March 2018
This year, Chisenhale Gallery in London began its public program with the new commission and exhibition by the London and Oran-based artist Lydia Ourahmane (1992), The You in Us, which included installation, sculpture, and a sound work. The visitor entered the exhibition space by pushing two memorably heavy doors, coated black with sulfur, conceived by the artist for public interaction via pushing and touching. As the doors were continuously pushed to enter and exit the space, the blackened surface slowly returned to its original silver. The weight of the doors served to introduce the audience to the gravity of the themes present within the show. The gradual reversion of the metal back to its shiny silver, by the continuous and repetitive human interaction, could be a metaphor of how persistence and human coalition leads to the obtainment of a result.
Once inside, the space was filled by a sound work, Paradis (2018), amplified from underneath a temporary wooden floor which, through intermittent waves, invited the visitors to wander within the show. In the corner opposite the silver doors, there were two more works, Droit de Sang (Blood Right), a cabinet displaying civil documents belonging to the artist’s grandfather, Tayeb Ourahmane. Between 1945 and 1962, Ourahmane resisted the French military service and played an active role during the Algerian fight for independence from France. Next to the cabinet was In the Absence of Our Mothers (begun in 2015), two identical golden teeth made out of a chain Ourahmane bought in the Medina market (Algeria) during her research on illegal immigration. While one of the teeth was displayed within the show installed on a pin, the other, having been implanted in Ourahmane’s mouth, was documented with an x-ray plate.
Through durational research on social and political issues, Ourahmane investigates individuals’ experiences to document past and present facts. A long-term research informed by her condition of living between Algeria and the UK. The two countries are indeed very different. Algeria is characterized by government corruption, continuous and violent conflicts between parties, unemployment, and immigration. The UK is a much wealthier and democratic country and represents the destination of the many people leaving Algeria every day. For this show, the artist focused on these differences by exploring the meaning of geographic and political borders on people’s lives.
The sound installation, Paradis, is a collection of records Ourahmane made while she was in Algeria conducting her research. These are sound tests made with a body-shaker, a device which transforms surfaces into speakers by turning low sounds into vibrations. After having gathered all the records together, Ourahmane collaborated with various friends and musicians in organizing the sounds appositely for the exhibition space at Chisenhale Gallery to confer to the final piece a tridimensional aspect. While the vibrations are amplified from different speakers located underneath the floor, silences in between the records give the rhythm to the overall composition. Hence, a sonic yet a spatial piece in which the visitors become part of the show by wandering within the space and freely lingering in the room in the attempt to catch the origin of the sound, pausing and waiting for the waves to reach the ears. As mentioned during her interview for the Art Newspaper (published on February 1, 2018) the experience of Paradis reflects the idea of representing the condition of “waiting for something to happen,” which Ourahmane describes as being common amongst young Algerians who, she explains, talk about leaving their country all the time.
In the corner opposite Doors, there were two other works installed in the wall. Droit de Song (Blood Right), showcasing Tayeb Ourahmane’s military records and French passport tracing his service in the army, and In the Absence of Our Mothers the work based on the two gold teeth. There was a wall text that narrated the artist’s grandfather traumatic military conscription as one of the best snipers in the armed force and his subsequent resistance and activism in the fight for the independence of his country, Algeria, at the time under the French colonization. The second part of the text described how the artist came to possess the gold she used to cast the two teeth. In 1945, Tayeb Ourahmane pulled out all of his teeth to escape the enrolment in the French army – the only way to achieve this goal was to be physically unfit for the service -. In 2015, Lydia Ourahmane, while on an expedition for her research on illegal immigration, bought a gold chain from an abusive merchant in Medina Market, who told her the chain belonged to his mother. The chain cost was the equivalent of €300, at the time, the price to embark on one of the boats illegally sailing from Algeria to Spain. In both contexts, teeth cover an essential role in tracking and determining the course of events. Ourahmane’s conceptual use of teeth as objects tells us the facts which established and still inform the story of Algerian people, of all soldiers facing terror, and immigrants living on the borders of two countries.
By setting up a minimal display, Ourahmane powerfully introduced to the public the global issue of immigration departing from Algerian historical facts by presenting everyday objects to tell the history of her country. It is indeed by using everyday objects like civil documents, teeth, and the x-ray plate, that Ourahmane documents history departing from individual experiences and investigates human identity and battles for rights and independence. A show that at first seemed almost empty soon revealed to be extraordinarily dense in meaning starting a communication with the public on social and political ideas which elicited further thinking behind the blackened silver doors.