This is one of artist Etel Adnan's leporellos: delicate and intricate folded booklets covered in script, symbols and imagery. In this short film, Cina Aissa, Learning Assistant at Tate, takes a closer look at the work.
Speaking about her personal discovery of Adnan, Cina says:
With her heritage spanning Greece, Lebanon and Syria, Adnan brings in other languages, cultures and points of view into her prolific works across literature, poetry and visual arts. I had never heard of her even though she is still alive and practising art well into her 90s.
Feminist artists such as the Guerrilla Girls are celebrated for their work in fighting for the equal representation of women in art galleries, but for me this conversation only scratches the surface. When it comes to the experience of women of colour, we are struggling for so much more than simply to be treated equally to men -- we are struggling for our humanity. Many women of colour have to endure poverty while undertaking unpaid care and service work, all against the backdrop of a racist society. When women of colour do create art and build prolific careers, like Adnan, it’s rare that they become household names. Why haven’t more people heard of Etel Adnan? I was so excited to discover Adnan but also sad and angry to see how little she has been spoken of.
The second lens that I am reading Untitled through is one that sees it as a powerful piece of collaborative work that connects my journey with Adnan’s piece in terms of my experiences of migration and displacement. I am interested in the collaborativeness of the piece, using Ferlinghetti's writing and later donating the piece to Toni Maraini, it gives the piece a sense of displacement and travelling between people. It is a good illustration of the interdependence between humans in contrast to language of hatred which speak of migrants 'only taking' instead of contributing. Though I was not around when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, Untitled spoke to me of the collective grief and disorientation that comes with irreversible events that affect everyone. I was profoundly shocked by the attack on the twin towers in 2001 but I was equally shocked to see the anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment rise subsequently across the world like a bad smell. Untitled helps me to remember that we are all affected when violence occurs. It is a piece that allows for multiple readings, weaving in different practises: transcribed Arabic holy verses, poetry, writing, drawing, mark making. It is a piece that touches me because it is alive with meanings and emotions.
This film has been created as part of the Terra Foundation For American Art Series: New Perspectives.
