Jayce Salloum, this time, 2020, video, 6:13min. Courtesy the artist.
Jayce Salloum: this time
Presented as part of The Pandemic is a Portal
@sfugalleries
Featuring Ahmed Jan, Mehdi Khan Agha and Hussain Ali.
“After my first year of art school in San Francisco in 1978, I quit and headed to Banff to do a year-long residency. The instructor, Hu Hohn, got me hooked on Sufi stories, which upon my return to school, I would read at night, to get through trying days. Later, in 2008, I'm in the central highlands of Afghanistan filming scruffy little country boys who speak Hazaragi, but never having the time for Sanji to translate responses back into English. Months later when I’m back home with the rough translations, I discover they were the very same Sufi stories — 30 years later — being told by these boys.” —Jayce Salloum
Many thanks to Khadim Ali and to the impeccable translator and eternal wunderkind Muzafar Sanji; to Mohammad Zia, our stalwart driver and safe-keeper who deftly transported us over unspeakable rutted goat trails aka roads; and to all who shared with us stories, food, curious minds, and warm hearts.
Collaborator: Khadim Ali
Commissioner: Haema Sivanesan
On site translator: Muzafar Sanji
Driver (Afghanistan): Mohammad Zia
A version of this time with verbal description and English-language dubbing of Hazara Afghani speech is below:
Description and dubbing by Cheryl Green.
Jayce Salloum’s projects are rooted in an intimate engagement with place(s) and the people that inhabit them. A grandson of Syrian immigrants from the Beqaa Valley (Lebanon), he was raised on Sylix (Okanagan) territory. After 22 years in San Francisco, Banff, Toronto, San Diego, Beirut, and New York, he has been based on the unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səíl̓wətaʔł territories for the past 23 years. Salloum has exhibited widely, from the smallest unnamed storefronts in his downtown eastside neighbourhood to institutions such as the Musée du Louvre (Paris), Centre Pompidou (Paris), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Havana Biennial, Sharjah Biennial, and the Sydney Biennale.
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