27-03-23 | Emii Alrai’s Methods of Display

Iraqi-British artist, Emii Alrai’s practice incorporates a collection of methodologies which ultimately remake or reimagine the archival artefact. The work asks its audience to grapple with the problematic nature of showing items from one culture - often stolen or bought - under the clinical roof of a western museum institution. It also acts as the working through, on Alrai’s part, of what she describes as a ‘confused genealogy’.

I am fascinated by Alrai’s consideration for display methods, and the myriad of ways she conjures up the experience of the museum but with subtle defiances. For example, the way objects are stabbed by their display fittings, in an almost violent gesture that speaks to Western treatment of ancient Mesopotamian artefacts. This made me consider the palm leaf vessels I’ve been making, and how these might be displayed. I am concerned with the idea of using work made from and about my family’s personal collection in a public context, so it is useful for me to be attuned to the implications Alrai raises of placing objects of significance from one place in another alien one.

In a pastiche of Alrai’s wall fittings, I designed a series of my own which will hold the woven vessels. I used birch wood in the hope of staining the fittings, however the shade I bought once trialled dried more green than the turquoise I was hoping for. I ended up using gouache to achieve the desired shade - which is intentionally associated with the middle east - on the very helpful suggestion of one of my peers. The shapes are in reference of Alrai’s, but also keep in mind the curvature of waves or sails which links to the shared seaside location of both Dubai where my father was born, and Brighton where my mother was born and where my brother and I were raised. I’m really happy with the results, and for the opportunity to make use of the university’s wood workshop. The colour will work well with the natural shade of my palm baskets, and I’m hoping the eventual display will create the same museum-style-with-defiance feeling Alrai achieves.

1. Installation view of Sutures: Eve Tagny & Emii Alrai, Visual Arts Centre, Canada, 2022

2. Installation view of The Stories We Tell Ourselves, Foreman Art Gallery, Canada, 2021

3. Alrai, Emii, ‘The Bone Cruncher’, Conversations on Swan Song Curated by Joshua Hart, 21 December 2017 <https://swan-song.co.uk/> [accessed 5 April 2023]

4. Emii Alrai: The High Dam at The Tetley, dir. by The Tetley Leeds (Leeds, 2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wQc28gT_Q4> [accessed 15 April 2023]

5. Grange, Holly, ‘Emii Alrai: The High Dam, The Tetley, Leeds’, Corridor8, 2020 <https://corridor8.co.uk/article/emii-alrai-the-high-dam/> [accessed 15 April 2023]

6. Alrai, Emii, ‘The Texture of the Moon Is Silence’, The Texture of the Moon Is Silence, 2022 <https://corridor8.co.uk/article/the-texture-of-the-moon-is-silence/> [accessed 15 April 2023]

7. Pages from Major Project sketch book and documentary photos of making wall fittings, Amanni Hassan Hollands 2023