(05)11-03-2011 barjeel-LR
Installation view of the Strike Oppose exhibition
Strike-oppose-exhibition
The Strike Oppose exhibition reception
Ahmed_Mater-Talisman_X-ray Blue
Artwork by Ahmed Mater in the Strike Oppose exhibition

Strike Oppose

  • 11 March - 28 Sept., 2011
  • Barjeel Art Foundation

A play on words of the expression “strike a pose”, the words “strike oppose” in conversation may sound like a command to model oneself for a camera snapshot, however on closer inspection the phrase comprises two words that denote resistance.

Almost everything these days is broadcast or communicated over the internet, TV or radio. Be it live news reports on natural disasters, the infidelity of a political official, an execution undertaken by terrorists, a panda sneeze getting 2.4 million hits on YouTube, or a 13-year-old’s RT #AWESOME coffee date with BFF @HotBunny15 – we are in a constant state of posing for or assembling in an audience.

The vast intake and exchange of all forms of openly sourced content is often uncritically accepted under a guise of reality. In this exhibition we examine how Arabs are both represented and projected in the ever-streaming flow of communication. The artworks inspect different forms of opposition or acquiescence to media, government regulation, kitsch and consumer culture, vanity, social taboo, injustice and mindless hogwash.