Shezad Dawood

Gerrie Van Noord

The multiple notions embedded within the black sun - relating to eclipse, transfiguration and alchemy - are explored in this beautifully produced publication conceived by artist Shezad Dawood.'Black sun' is a term with multiple meanings; it represents the eclipse of the day, but is also a symbol of esoteric or occult significance used in various belief systems.It is linked to the metaphor 'dark night of the soul', which is used to describe a phrase in a person's spiritual life, marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation, and which can be experienced in particular by those who are marginalised by ethnicity, sexuality and displacement.Accompanying a travelling exhibition at Devi Art Foundation, India, and Arnolfini, UK, this catalogue examines structures that look to deconstruct or displace our everyday modes of seeing.Including works by artists Ayisha Abraham, Tino Sehgal and Wolfgang Tillmans, amongst others, the texts and interviews provide an in-depth exploration of the black sun.

Black Sun: Alchemy, Diaspora and Heterotopia

Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art

Towards the Possible Film

Sheza Dawood

Courtney J. Martin

Hammad Nasar

Iftikhar Dadi

Rachel Garfield

Layering postwar geometric abstraction with Arabic calligraphic forms, Anwar Jalal Shemza's rich and imaginative body of work is surveyed for the first time in this comprehensive volume.He then moved to London in the mid 1950s to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, where his art underwent fundamental transformation.His subsequent work in painting, drawing and printmaking rigorously deploys geometric and calligraphic forms to engage with dilemmas of identity, culture and place in the modern and contemporary era.Born in India in 1928, Shemza attended art school in Lahore, Pakistan, and was soon recognised there as a leading artist and literary figure.Accompanying over 100 illustrations of works and rare archival material, a text by Iftikhar Dadi provides an overview of his career alongside essays by Shezad Dawood, Rachel Garfield, Courtney Martin and Hammad Nasar that offer perspectives on his work, contemporary reception and influence on a younger generation.

Anwar Jalal Shemza

Århus Kunstbygning

Intensive surfaces

Shumon Basar

Gerrie van Noord

Mark Bartlett

Published on the occasion of his eponymous touring solo exhibition, 'Piercing Brightness' is the first major monograph of British artist Shezad Dawood. For a number of years, Dawood has developed a unique discursive and collaborative approach to making art through a practice that incorporates light sculpture, textile painting and film. Known for his tumbleweeds- ironic sculptural fusions of Islamic and contemporary culture- Dawood gained international acclaim for Feature, a 'zombie Western' set in the English countryside. Concentrating on the artist's engagement with film and particularly his science fiction feature Piercing Brightness, the publication features Illustrations of past exhibitions, projects and individual works, with contributions by film scholar Mark Bartlett, writer and critic Jean Fisher and Michael Stanley, Director, Modern Art Oxford. 0Exhibition: Harry Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, UK (2011) / Touring exhibition.

Piercing Brightness

Ziba de Weck

Sarah Brown

Oliver Basciano

Shezad Dawood's first solo show in a London institution, comprises recently executed light sculptures, an installation of large-scale paintings on textile, and two films, one of which, Towards the Possible Film, gives its title to the exhibition.Many of Dawood's questions and investigations are rooted in his own cultural heritage, life experience, and a deep desire to encourage communication between different cultures, people, and even the past and future. His extensive travels and research, together with his deep interest in the fantastical, unusual and speculative, all vitally feed into some extraordinary episodes and narratives in his films.Towards the Possible Film, 2014, was shot at Legzira beach in Sidi Ifni, Morocco. In a landscape that could well be an alien planet, otherworldly figures appear as if to threaten the peace. Dawood found a deep source of inspiration in the region's history and the many wars fought in the 1950s and '60s between Spain, Morocco and the independent Saharan tribes.Dawood's light sculptures stem from his interest in mysticism. For example, The Black Sun, white-neon circle, is essentially concerned with the mystical transformation of the self as represented by the allegory of the eclipse and the notion of the dark night of the soul. While his installation of large-scale paintings on textiles, that were stitched during the 1970s by women in Pakistan, creates a dialogue between two worlds and two realities, both past and present.Published on the occasion of the exhibition Shezad Dawood: Towards the Possible Film at Parasol unit, London, 4 April - 25 May 2014.

Feature: Reconstruction is not just simple documentation of a film. Instead a wide range of photographs taken by actors and volunteers, professionals and amateurs, capture action on both sides of the camera. The images are accompanied by footnotes, e-mail exchanges and written and visual contributions by artists Jimmie Durham, Doug Fishbone, David Medalla and writer Sebastian RoachFeature: Reconstruction accompanies a series of exhibitions and screenings of the film 'Feature'. The first is at Leeds Met Gallery (20 June-2 July), followed by Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (8 August-21 September), Eastside Projects, Birmingham (November-December), and finally at Tate Britain during the Tate Triennial in Spring 2009.

Reconstruction

Feature

Until the End of the World

Shezad Dawood

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