Cairo Stories: Ayousha

- Film & Video (Film & Video)

24:00 minutes

Judith Barry


The chapter Ayousha , of Judith Barry’s Cairo Stories , is a portrait-like work that consists of one plasma screen and one framed photograph. The project developed out of oral archives made from 215 interviews, which Barry conducted with women of varying social and economic classes in Cairo between 2003 and 2011. Her research started at the beginning of the Iraq War and concluded just after the Arab Spring. Her interest was in how women in contemporary Egypt are navigating the structures of the nation state: social systems, economic responsibility, and familial ties in a changing urban landscape. Cairo Stories chronicles the personal experiences of Cairene women, expanding Barry’s engagement with notions of representation, history, subjectivity, and translation, as these ideas have circulated across cultures. Cairo Stories is a complex tapestry that is somewhere between documentary and narrative, and moves video art in a new direction. To create the installation, Barry worked collaboratively with her subjects, making audio recordings of the women’s stories. She translated their words and worked to preserve each one’s cadence, fluidity, and tone. A group of Barry’s Cairene colleagues then vetted the chronicles, actively considering the social and political contexts of the accounts. While the interviewees wanted their stories told, they did not want to be photographed or filmed. To protect the identity of her subjects, Barry hired actors who then delivered one individual’s text as if it were her own. Recently reflecting on their stories with some of the women she interviewed, Barry was struck by how little the emotional tenor of their lives has changed, even as the promise of “the revolution” fades into an increasingly repressive state.


The American artist, writer, and educator Judith Barry is known for her audiovisual installations and her critical essays. Living in San Francisco in the mid-1970s, she lived in a loft building that she shared with the performance-video pioneers Terry Fox and Howard Fried. She developed a singular practice, which paralleled that of nearby feminist-activist artists including Lynn Hershman and Suzanne Lacy. The three consistently have used media and performance to examine issues around notions of identity, beauty, and aging. Throughout a long and productive career, Barry has utilized a research–based methodology to explore a wide range of topics in her art. Both the form and the content of her work evolve as the research proceeds. She often makes use of installation as a way to combine many of her disparate interests. These immersive environments are based on experiments incorporating architecture, sculpture, performance, theatre, film/video/new media, graphics, and interactivity. Each of her projects aims to provide new ways for engaging conceptually and visually within a space. Inspired by architecture, literary and film theory, and dance, Barry has translated these disciplines directly into specific physical relations that place the viewer in a dialogue with the content of her research. She constructs a variety of ‘subject positions’ for the viewer to inhabit that function like point-of-view perspectives and allow the viewer to both cohere the meaning of the work by inhabiting the space of the installation, and simultaneously to ascribe a multiplicity of meanings to the experience.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Hummingbird
© » KADIST

Brian Tripp

2010

For many years Tripp has been involved in reviving Karuk ceremonies that had been discontinued for decades, he developed his signature abstract style, based in Karuk design, ceremonial regalia forms, and related cultural and political iconography...

'Collecting art by women is an integral component of my process': Darlene Pérez on why she waited for a Lee Krasner work
© » THEARTNEWSPER

'Collecting art by women is an integral component of my process': Darlene Pérez on why she waited for a Lee Krasner work Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Art Basel in Miami Beach 2023 interview 'Collecting art by women is an integral component of my process': Darlene Pérez on why she waited for a Lee Krasner work One-half of the couple behind the Pérez Art Museum Miami will never tire of Monet's Water Lilies Benjamin Sutton 8 December 2023 Share As well as providing the Pérez Art Museum Miami with $75m and 200 works from their collection, Darlene and Jorge Pérez support many local arts organisations Darlene Pérez, together with her real-estate developer husband Jorge, is a major force in Miami’s cultural scene...

Bodily Study of Unthinking Groups
© » KADIST

Matthew Angelo Harrison

2016

In Bodily Study of Unthinking Groups, Harrison combines two disparate materials into one stratified stack: automotive clay (used in detailing cars) forms the earthy base, while fragments of zebra skull become imbedded in this falsified soil...

Sebastian Winkler, WE’RE NO COMPUTERS, SEBASTIAN, WE’RE PHYSICAL
© » GALERIA FOKSAL

Sebastian Winkler, WE'RE NO COMPUTERS, SEBASTIAN, WE'RE PHYSICAL - Galeria Foksal Polski English GALERIA FOKSAL #Las Rzeczy Exhibitions Artists About gallery Contact Sebastian Winkler Sebastian Winkler, WE’RE NO COMPUTERS, SEBASTIAN, WE’RE PHYSICAL September 2, 2022 Opening day of the exhibition: September 2nd, 2022 from 6 pm Duration: Sat...

Shepard Fairey Announces NFT Drop on SuperRare
© » ARTNOME

Shepard Fairey Announces NFT Drop on SuperRare — Artnome Menu Blog Exploring art through data using the Artnome database...

The Substation’s SeptFest 2021: Endnote
© » ARTS EQUATOR

The Substation’s SeptFest 2021: Endnote | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints Joelle Cecilia Quek April 15, 2021 Text and photos by Joelle Cecilia Quek The Substation’s 2021 SeptFest made a full comeback in March after 6 years, marking the 30th anniversary of Singapore’s first independent home of the arts...

Franck André Jamme - Poetry Reading
© » KADIST

Drinks at 6pm, event at 7pm Poet and curator Franck André Jamme will read from his new book of poems To the Secret (La Presse, 2015) and discuss with BAM/PFA Director, Lawrence Rinder , his involvement with the tradition of Tantric art as well as his curatorial contribution to the groundbreaking 1989 exhibition, Magiciens de la terre ...

La Cie Maxmind’s “Isle of Dreams”: The Dark Fantastic
© » ARTS EQUATOR

La Cie Maxmind's “Isle of Dreams”: The Dark Fantastic | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Thum CC August 31, 2018 By Akanksha Raja (620 words, four-minute read) 拾念劇集 La Cie Maxmind’s Isle of Dreams ( 蓬萊) was the headlining event for the George Town Festival’s Taiwan-focused showcase this year...

Vernacular Criticism
© » KADIST

Kevin Killian and Brian Droitcour will read and discuss their contributions of critical and creative reviews to Amazon.com and Yelp (respectively)...

Two Chinese artists show contrast in styles in side-by-side solo exhibitions of paintings at Hong Kong’s Blindspot Gallery
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Two Chinese artists show contrast in styles in side-by-side solo exhibitions of paintings at Hong Kong’s Blindspot Gallery | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more Detail from “Bay of the Deer” (2023) by Zhang Wenzhi, part of the Beijing-based artist’s solo exhibition “Tiger in Mountains, Deer at Ocean” at Blindspot Gallery...

5 Year of the Dragon stamp sets from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, Thailand and the Isle of Man: are they better than the US’ much criticised design?
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

5 Year of the Dragon stamp sets from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, Thailand and the Isle of Man: are they better than the US’ much criticised design?...

The Wedding
© » KADIST

Elham Rokni

2015

“The Wedding” is the centerpiece of a series of works centered on a film of the artist’s parents’ wedding in 1978, the year before the Iranian revolution that gave power to a religious fundamentalist regime...

Indonesia at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (via New Mandala)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Indonesia at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (via New Mandala) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar Zico Albaiquni, b.1987 Indonesia: "When it Shook–The Earth stood Still (After Pirous), 2018...

Jack Goldstein — La fulgurance de l’instant ou l’histoire fragmentée
© » SLASH PARIS

Jack Goldstein — La fulgurance de l’instant ou l’histoire fragmentée — Michèle didier Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Jack Goldstein — La fulgurance de l’instant ou l’histoire fragmentée — Michèle didier Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Jack Goldstein — La fulgurance de l’instant ou l’histoire fragmentée Exhibition Mixed media Upcoming Jack Goldstein, The Burning Forest, on marbled red and white vinyl, 1976 Courtesy Galerie michèle didier Jack Goldstein La fulgurance de l’instant ou l’histoire fragmentée In 17 days: February 29 → May 4, 2024 Jack Goldstein (1945, Montréal — 2003, San Bernardino) est peintre et également auteur de films, d’enregistrements sur disques vinyles et de poèmes...

You Want to Buy Art. Is It About Love or Money? - via The New York Times
© » LARRY'S LIST

Collectors offer advice on how to buy fine art, and when to sell it....

Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Closure of Scala Theatre; Wayang Orang lives on
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Closure of Scala Theatre; Wayang Orang lives on | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar National Geographic Indonesia/Paguyuban Wayang Orang Bharata July 2, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...

Weekly Southeast Asian Radar: Malaysia reopens theatres; playwright Alfian Sa’at dragged into politics
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Southeast Asian Radar: Malaysia reopens theatres; playwright Alfian Sa'at dragged into politics | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar DPAC June 25, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...

Mysteries will haunt the museum at Westmoreland Museum's October Art on Tap
© » TRIBLIVE

Mysteries will haunt the museum at Westmoreland Museum's October Art on Tap | TribLIVE.com Art & Museums Mysteries will haunt the museum at Westmoreland Museum's October Art on Tap Julia Maruca Monday, Oct...

3FACE #3436
© » KADIST

Ian Cheng

2022

Ian Cheng’s project 3FACE is based on a model that is derived from both the artist’s extensive readings on psychology and cognition, and his own intuitive understanding of how people function...