Catalogue > At random

Basma Alsharif

we began by measuring distance

Vidéo expérimentale | dv | couleur | 19:0 | Palestine, Egypte | 2009

Long still frames, text, language, and sound are weaved together to unfold the narrative of an anonymous group who fill their time by measuring distance. Innocent measurements transition into political ones, drawing to an examination of how image and sound communicate history, tragedy, and the complication of Palestinian nationalism. The work explores an ultimate disenchantment with facts when the visual fails to communicate the tragic.

Born 27 august 1983 in Kuwait. Spent early childhood in Brittany France. Educated in the US, earning BFA & MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art & Design and was a guest student at the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University Sweden in 2004. Taught as an adjunct instructor at The University of Illinois at Chicago, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the American University in Cairo. Currently based in Beirut Lebanon as a recipient of the Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Arts Grant 2009-2010 developing a series of new projects in photography, film, and text.