Bani Abidi

The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing

Curated by Pablo de Ocampo

October 25 – November 24, 2007

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 25, 2007, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Gallery TPW and the South Asian Visual Arts Collective (SAVAC) are pleased to co-present Pakistani artist Bani Abidi’s three-part photo and video installation The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing. At the center of Abidi’s piece is the story of Mohammad Bin Qasim, an 8th century Arab General who led the campaigns to conquer the Sindh and Punjab lands that would become the modern state of Pakistan. Through three imagined narratives—photographs of a young man believing himself to be Bin Qasim, a series of portrait studio images of young boys posing as Bin Qasim, and a segment of a 1993 made for TV movie about Bin Qasim’s conquest of the Sindh— Abidi looks at ways in which the factual and fictitious threads of history are conflated and confounded in the collective memory.

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Artist Biography

Bani Abidi has been working primarily in video for the past seven years. These works investigate notions of cultural identity and history in her native Pakistan as well as within a global context. Abidi has exhibited extensively at galleries, festivals and museums internationally including ZKM (Karlsruhe), Thomas Erban Gallery (New York), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin) and has participated in the Singapore Biennale and the 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial.

Curator Biography

Pablo de Ocampo is a curator and occasional artist living in Toronto where he is the Artistic Director of the Images Festival. He recently relocated to Toronto from Portland, Oregon where he was a co-founder of the experimental film series Cinema Project and was the Executive Director of the Independent Publishing Resource Center.

Bani Abidi, <em>The Ghost of Mohammad Bin Qasim</em>, digital print, 2005.
Bani Abidi, <em>The Ghost of Mohammad Bin Qasim</em>, digital print, 2005.
Bani Abidi, <em>The Ghost of Mohammad Bin Qasim</em>, digital print, 2005.
Bani Abidi, still from <em>This video is a Re-enactment</em>, video, 2005

Bani Abidi, still from <em>The News</em>, video, 2001
Bani Abidi, still from <em>Shan Pipe Band Learns the Star Spangled Banner</em>, video, 2004
Bani Abidi, still from <em>Shan Pipe Band Learns the Star Spangled Banner</em>, video, 2004
Bani Abidi, still from <em>Mangoes</em>, video, 2002

Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007
Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007
Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007
Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007

Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007
Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007
Bani Abidi, installation view of <em>The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing</em>, 2007