Farah Al Qasimi, lecture performance Mother at Tate Modern, 21 November 2023. Photo © Tate (Josh Croll).
Sitting amid the sounds of Farah Al Qasimi’s Mother performance was not only sensorial and all-encompassing, but also took me back to the technology of my 1990s childhood, when ‘noise’ was inescapable and the primary signifier of digital progress. The sound of dial-up internet and the ‘turning on’ of the machine were all part of an orchestra of synthesised hums and blaring noises that I seldom miss. But they were signs that we were embarking on a cultural shift in the ways that information would be recorded, disseminated and received.
Al Qasimi is an artist from the United Arab Emirates, based in Brooklyn, New York. Mother was a lecture-performance set in her photographic display at Tate Modern, with both performance and display touching on themes of spirituality and culture-specific motifs, particularly relating to West Asia. Engulfing the room was an overlap of visual data across the walls: images of fruit, textiles and flowers lay beneath framed images of Al Qasimi’s most notable photographic works, creating an immersive experience for the audience.
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