Ep 3: Hassan Hajjaj — Music and Ritual What are the ways in which identity gets stereotyped and commodified in visual media? Can art draw on diverse histories to express solidarities in the present? To find out, listen this episode where Hassan Hajjaj is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi. At Sharjah, Hajjaj shows a documentary film ca ... Show More
May 2025
EP14: Kapulani Landgraf x Megan Tamati-Quennell
Kapulani Landgraf is a Kānaka Maoli artist from Pūʻahuʻula, Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. In this episode, she speaks about the responsibility to engage in creative forms of resistance against the destruction and erosion of the ‘āina’—which encompasses her peoples’ land and its living entitie ... Show More
17m 45s
Dec 2023
Episode 01: The Diasporic Imagination
How do the concepts of home, longing and belonging resonate through works by artists Etel Adnan, Lubaina Himid, Rashed Aereen and Saloua Rouda Choucair? In this episode, Hoor Al Qasimi speaks with curator Omar Kholeif about the themes that percolate through the exhibition ‘In the ... Show More
24m 14s
Jan 2024
Episode 06: Backstory: Untitled (1990)
In this episode of Backstory, curator and art historian Salah Hassan elaborates on the historical significance of Untitled (1990), a painting by Gavin Jantjes, and how it contributes to the discourse and representation of African and African Diaspora art. Backstory is available i ... Show More
6m 54s
May 2023
Hassan Hajjaj: Photographer and Artist
Hassan Hajjaj is known as the “Andy Warhol of Marrakech” - but his style transcends that comparison. His work lives in the intersection of fashion, pop culture, Moroccan heritage, Afro influence, orientalist critique, and many other disciplines, truly placing it in a league of it ... Show More
27m 25s
Jan 2024
Episode 07: Henok Melkamzer: Telsem, Tradition and Modernity
How do artistic practices traverse across generations? How do they continue to address critical conditions in our present moment? In our latest episode, Hoor Al Qasimi speaks with curator Elizabeth Giorgis about the work of artist Henok Melkamzer, one of the most prolific practit ... Show More
28m 37s
Feb 2024
Episode 08: Backstory: Untitled (2023)
Join Elizabeth Giorgis as she tells us about some of the symbols and imagery that appear in Melkamzer’s paintings, such as faces, vines, suns and moons, to gain insight into reading telsem. Backstory is available in both audio and video formats. To view this episode in video, cli ... Show More
7m 10s