{"id":46,"date":"2020-03-08T13:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/?p=46"},"modified":"2025-04-09T21:40:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T21:40:56","slug":"still-more-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/index.php\/2020\/03\/08\/still-more-world\/46","title":{"rendered":"Still More World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Still More World<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solo Exhibition
Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2019)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still More World<\/em> confronts the thresholds of sustainability and to consider what futures we might illuminate\u2014or extinguish\u2014in our quest to shape the world. It is a delicate interplay between the material and immaterial, reminding us that every illuminated skyline carries within it echoes of unseen histories and latent possibilities. Raqs continues its inquiry into the immeasurable, the exhibition embodies the paradox of our era\u2014where the relentless pursuit of growth coexists with the urgent question of how much more the earth can yield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition reflects on the luminous energy that animates Doha’s urban landscape\u2014a dynamic stage where light, people, and raw materials converge in a vibrant dance of constant transformation. Raqs draws upon literary narratives and scientific insights to unravel the intricate cycles of progress and change. The exhibition traces the movement of populations across time and space, juxtaposing the material with the imagined, the visible with the felt, and the fleeting with the enduring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dohas for Doha<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Provisions For Everybody<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Alive, with Cerussite and Peppered Moth<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Untold Intimacy of Digits<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
To People <\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Spinal<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Seven Billion and One<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Translator’s Silence<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
36 Planes of Emotions<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dohas for Doha<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five Videos, LED screens, variable dimensions<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dohas woven by Kabir<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rahim sees them in the Stars<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raqs finds them everywhere,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Doha and in Mar<\/em>s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doha talks in shadow speech<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where words fail Raqs, let commas reach<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When nothing else will do, then Raqs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try a line or two of madness,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

which is but sanity, redux<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The video works Dohas for Doha<\/em> present illuminated proverbs that play with language, light, and the transmission of knowledge. A doha<\/em> is a poetic form of four-line verses, popularized by the medieval Hindi poet and mystic Kabir. By shifting sequences of words, these dohas<\/em> create multiple meanings and linguistic puns, engaging in a poetic interplay between the city of Doha and Raqs. The word doha<\/em> in Hindi also means \u2018double,\u2019 offering another layer of resonance.
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Provisions for Everybody <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Installation with 3 Videos, large drawing print, 3 dhurrie banners, drawings on vinyl, found furniture<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoal Mine. Windmill. Sugarcane Field. Words. Pictures. Memes. It\u2019s all about energy; everything is burning.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This installation navigates histories of energy and extraction, journeying through sites shaped by coal, wind, and sugarcane. The eponymous video follows an itinerary reminiscent of George Orwell\u2019s travels\u2014tracing shadows of places from Northern England to Eastern India, Myanmar, and Catalonia. Raqs\u2019 journey takes them to Orwell\u2019s birthplace in Motihari, Bihar in Eastern India, where they consider his assertion \u2013 \u201cto abolish class \u2013 (and caste)- distinctions means abolishing a part of yourself\u201d in tandem with the Buddha\u2019s celebration of doubt, which happened more than two millennia ago, in the same neighborhood. Accompanying videos, A Planet Turns on its Axis Without Permission<\/em> and Things to Look at and Reconsider<\/em>, further explore themes of time, revolution, and remembrance. Suspended dhurrie banners titled Let the Future Praise Us<\/em> reference historical labor movements, weaving together images, texts, and textures to invite new ways of thinking about potential and plenitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iteration shown at: AV Festival, Newcastle (2018)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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