Nevin Aladag
Exhibition catalogue, Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967–2017, UB Art Galleries, University at Buffalo: 2017
Drumheads roll and ghungroos jingle from every ripple while roaming silky dessert sands. Tambourine zills clatter atop bikes dashing down city streets, then ring as they ride a waterfront’s easy currents. Standing drums are tipped-tapped-rapped by the elements, from sprinkler sprays and sand rains to broken branches and crashing waves.
These are the sounds and spaces of Nevin Aladag’s Session, a musical portrait of Sharjah. The three-channel video installation was made for the city’s 2013 Biennial and features a cast of diverse Arabic, African, and Indian percussion instruments all from the United Arab Emirates. These instruments take us along a discordant symphonic journey, from the quiet desert to cacophonous industrial district and old city center, reflecting the people and places that occupy each unique landscape. They move with adventurous power yet a vulnerable lack of control, beckoning us to question: What is playing? What is being played? As sound penetrates distinct social and physical hierarchies, a sense of freedom breaks through the structures of the undulating Emirate terrains and video triptych frame through which they’re juxtaposed. A simultaneously dissonant yet resonant composition emerges, narrating the borders and beats of the city in a symphony ultimately free from narration.