Tahir Karmali: Valley of Unity
Valley of Unity | Performances | Installation View | Press Release
September 8 – October 12, 2023
Opening Reception: September 8th, 7-9pm
Open Source Gallery is pleased to present, Valley of Unity a project by Tahir Karmali.
Valley of Unity is based on a passage from Attar of Nishapur’s The Conference of the Birds, in which the Sufi poet describes a valley where all our outlines dissolve and we become indistinguishable from each other. The poem highlights how our journeys in the search of peace and meaning are unique yet the destination is the same. Valley of Unity will consist of a series of steel sheets resting at varying angles that represent a valley with 4 bass shakers/resonators on each turning them into speakers. The sound will be sourced from national borderlines and mixed to create a slightly more palatable musical experience.
Karmali’s use of sound in both the installation and related performances is deliberate: sound moves throughout materials as a unifier. During the course of the exhibition, musicians will be invited to activate the installation through live performances produced and recorded by Street of Sound. The goal of these performances is to create a mixed auditory experience that incorporates improvisation and spontaneity. The exhibition speaks about the dissolving of borders and outlines – this could be interpreted politically, personally, or spiritually.
The exhibition will also include drawings of abstract representation of valleys, recalling minimalists of the 60s and 70s and reflecting the curves of the sculpture. Visitors are invited to consider the waves that move through us all, making space for meditation on our collective journey.
The work of Nairobi-born and Brooklyn-based artist Tahir Carl Karmali spans photography, installation, papermaking, sculpture, and sound and concentrates thematically on migration, landscape/geology, labor, and belonging. His work has been exhibited at BODE, Berlin, Hamburg, and Copenhagen; Circle Art Agency, Nairobi; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Kunsthal Rotterdam; The Shed, Cleveland Museum, Leslie Lohman, and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, among others. Karmali was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency (both 2019–20). Recently he was an artist in residence at The Watermill Center (2020) and Montello Foundation (2021). He was previously an Artist-in-Residence at Triangle Arts Association, Pioneer Works, Trestle Gallery, the MacDowell Colony, and BRIC.
Featured Image: Photo by Stefan Hagen
