Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1: An Exercise in Looking: Curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif
Perpetual Inventory and Dr. O’s Pop Shop at The Third Line, Dubai this December.
The Third Line presents Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1 and Dr. O’s Pop Shop: The Live Edition, opening 19 December 2022 at Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. The exhibition continues until 29 January 2023.
A major new collaboration with artPost21—this special winter take-over curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif aka Dr. O delves into the vaults of The Third Line, presenting a constellation of artworks from The Third Line’s roster of artists that have rarely been exhibited.
A portion of the proceeds from sales will help support the cultural makers of tomorrow through a donation made to the not-for-profit, artPost21.
Perpetual Inventory was conceived by Dr. Omar Kholeif during the height of global lockdown. In this period of stillness, Kholeif spent much of their time alone in archives and storage units, in and around the UAE. The proposition of Perpetual Inventory is a summoning—a way to encourage institutions of all kinds to ‘look inwards’—to consider their own histories and cultural artifacts, and the increasing significance that they have gained over time.
A project devised in collaboration with the not-for-profit, artPost21, a platform that explores the intersection of art, technology and social justice, Perpetual Inventory, takes place at The Third Line, one of Dubai’s first galleries of contemporary art. Renowned for supporting emerging artists, and apprising audiences of culture's overlooked polymaths, The Third Line has fostered a dynamic space for art and artists, acting as a beacon for contemporary art both in the UAE and globally.
Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1 begins Kholeif’s project in their adopted home—in the heart of Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. Unearthing crates and boxes—both physical and virtual, Kholeif has subtitled volume 1, An Exercise in Looking. Here, the curator weaves viewers through portals and gateways found in the landscapes of artists such as Anuar Khalifi and Fouad Elkoury through to the multi-dimensional drawing practice of the late, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian.
From here, the viewer’s gaze is invited to shift to the present—from science fiction to everyday realities, as elucidated in the works of artists such as, Ala Ebtekar and Arwa Abouon. From here, the exhibition unfolds into various aesthetic possibilities in the photographs of the late Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Shirin Aliabadi. Memory and memorial are explored in early portraiture by figures including Youssef Nabil, Hayv Kahraman and Laleh Khorramian, while the expressive possibilities of language are deconstructed in the work of Sophia Al Maria and Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige.
The full list of artists for Perpetual Inventory, Volume 1: An Exercise in Looking is: Ala Ebtekar, Amir H. Fallah, Anuar Khalifi, Arwa Abouon, Farah Al Qasimi, Farhad Moshiri, Fouad Elkoury, Hassan Hajjaj, Hayv Kahraman, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Jordan Nassar, Laleh Khorramian, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Pouran Jinchi, Shirin Aliabadi, Sophia Al Maria, Tarek Al-Ghoussein and Youssef Nabil.
View artworks
Coinciding with Perpetual Inventory is a take-over of The Third Line’s shop that will manifest in the form of a living art installation, Dr. O’s Pop Shop. Developed in collaboration with UAE-based creative label, Krân, Dr. O’s Pop Shop, which recently made its premiere in Dr. Kholeif’s exhibition, My Life in the Metaverse iscurrently on view at Manarat Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi. At The Third Line, a new installation will be inaugurated—formed of artist-designed prints, editions, clothing, and accessories, all of which will be available for purchase. Conceived in the spirit of the late artist, Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, which opened its doors to the public in New York city in the 1980s, Dr. O’s Pop Shop, seeks to democratise art and artmaking for a wider public.
A publication featuring original writing by Kholeif, along with archival material, and poetry will be released to coincide with the exhibition.
Notes
Catch Dr. Omar Kholeif’s many exhibitions around the world. In Abu Dhabi, you may visit My Life in the Metaverse, currently on view at Manarat Saadiyat until 22 January 2023. In Germany, you may visit, In the Heart of Another Country, on view at Deichtorhallen, Hamburg until 11 March 2023. In the Netherlands, you may visit, Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence, on view at The Bonnefanten until 14 May 2023.
About Dr. Omar Kholeif
Dr Omar Kholeif CF FRSA aka Dr. O is an author of prose and poetry, a historian of the academy and its peripheries and a curator of vanquished and suppressed archives. They have worked as a broadcaster, filmmaker, editor, publisher, and museum director. Over the last two decades, their work has concentrated on the evolving nature of networked image culture in relation to intersectional questions emerging in the field and study of ethnicity, race, and gender. Their lines of inquiry have come to life in over 60 exhibitions, and in nearly 40 authored, co-authored, and/or edited books, which have been translated into 12 languages. Dr. Kholeif was co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber and currently serves as Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. Their much-anticipated monograph, Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs is published by Phaidon in early 2023, http://www.phaidon.com/internetart. Visit: www.omarkholeif.com.
This is an
production
