Shezad Dawood (London)
A Virtual Tour of Kalimpong
An espionage thriller through Kalimpong, a small town in West Bengal, at the foothills of the Himalayas, and the entry point to Tibet. A place where esotericist Alexandra David-Neel first met the Dalai Lama, also a site once denounced as a “nest of spies” in the 1960s, and traversed by everyone from the Russians, the Chinese, CIA, Indian secret service, Tibetan Khamba guerillas, British colonial stalwarts, and of course, the ever elusive yeti.
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Shezad Dawood, A Virtual Tour of Kalimpong, 2016. Performance documentation FIELD MEETING: Thinking Practice, November 11th at Solomon R. Guggenheim. Photo: Renata Carciofolo.
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Shezad Dawood works across film, painting and sculpture to juxtapose discrete systems of image, language, site and multiple narratives, using the editing process as a method to explore meanings and forms between film and painting. His practice often involves collaboration, working with groups and individuals across different territories to physically and conceptually map far-reaching lines of enquiry. These networks map across different geographic locations and communities and are particularly concerned with acts of translation and restaging. Recent solo exhibitions include: Galerist, Istanbul (2016) Pioneer Works, Brooklyn (2015) Fig.2 at the ICA studio, London (2015), Parasol Unit, London, Leeds Art Gallery and OCAT Xi’an, China (all 2014), Modern Art Oxford (2012). And group exhibitions include: Taipei Biennial (2014), Marrakech Biennial (2014), MACBA Barcelona (2014), Witte de With (2013), Busan Biennale (2010), Tate Britain, Altermodern (2009), and the Venice Biennale (2009). His recent feature film Piercing Brightness (2013), has been screened at the ICA, London, MoMA, New York and various international festivals and museums. Curatorial projects include the exhibition and publication: Black Sun, for the Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (2013/4). He currently lives and works in London, where he is Senior Research Fellow in Experimental Media at the University of Westminster.
Shezad Dawood, Nature Interpretation Center, Kalimpong Hill Station. Image source: www.tourmyindia.com, as part of the artist’s research for his lecture-performance, “A Virtual Tour of Kalimpong” for FIELD MEETING: Thinking Practice